In recent weeks, there have been several meetings of the coalition of the willing as European powers look to step up their support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
These have mainly been among politicians.
However, next week, military leaders from European nations will meet at Northwood in North West London to discuss the more operational aspects of what support for Kyiv would look like.
A Number 10 spokesman said: “We’ve moved into an operational phase now and what that means is … bringing together military planners to look at the potential design of force structures, interoperability and what capability is needed to ensure a sovereign Ukraine is able to defend itself for generations to come.
“That includes looking at everything from aircraft, tanks, troops and intelligence capabilities, and how we can best put them to use to support Ukraine.
“This delivers on the prime minister’s plan to support Ukraine by ramping up delivery of weapons and equipment, boosting Ukraine’s defensive capabilities in the long-term, working with allies to develop robust security assurances and keeping up the pressure on President Putin.
“Next week, we’ll continue to accelerate the pace and scale of operational planning with further meetings at our Northwood headquarters as we look forward more closely at the details and structure of any future force.”
Nothing off the table
There had been reports that the prime minister had watered down his commitment to putting British troops in Ukraine as a peacekeeping force.
But Downing Street denied this.
A spokesperson said: “Nothing is off the table on any of these fronts, so I wouldn’t start ruling anything out, but clearly thousands of troops will be required to support any deployment, whether that is at sea, on land or in the air.”
