Keir Starmer’s future ‘peacekeeping’ force in Ukraine could be one misstep away from sparking World War Three, leaving British troops stuck in the middle of an apocalyptic ‘shooting war’.
That’s the view of former British spymaster Colonel Philip Ingram, who fears Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin would never stick to any peace deal.
It comes as academics and defence experts last night warned any ‘ill-thought out’ peacekeeping mission could prove ‘fatal’ for Nato, triggering furious to political rows that would ultimately tear the alliance apart.
Veteran Col Ingram, who helped plan Britain’s peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, told MailOnline: ‘The nightmare scenario is you get a peace agreement and there is a political rush to put troops on the ground and then something changes, and it turns into a shooting war and you’re caught in the middle.
‘That is distinctly possible with any peace agreement with Russia because they’re so unpredictable.’
In one scenario, laid out by analysts of how the nightmare could be unfold, Russia launches a surprise attack on peacekeeper troops guarding a demilitarised zone, which then prompts an aggressive response by the UK and its allies.
This could see cruise missiles being launched from allied fighter jets or naval warships, with Russia responding with its own barrage of hypersonic and ballistic missiles, triggering all-out war in Europe.
It comes as President Donald Trump dramatically revealed he had spoken to Russian premier Putin over a pact to end the war – in a call that did not involve Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
British troops could be used to police a demilitarised zone in Ukraine. Pictured are Royal Marines in gas masks as they work on reacting to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks during NATO’s Steadfast Defender exercise in 2024
Military experts have warned how potential missteps while peacekeepers are in Ukraine could lead to a deadly escation. Pictured are troops from the 24th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces on February 15, 2025, firing a MRLS BM-21 ‘Grad’ towards Russian positions
America later sparked a frenzy by dismissing the idea that European leaders will have a seat at the table, while Zelensky warned that he would not accept any deal done between Washington and Moscow.
And as concerns continued to mount, European leaders convened in Paris yesterday for emergency security discussions over how to respond to Mr Trump’s unilateral launching of negotiations with Putin.
It came as Sir Keir Starmer indicated it was time for British troops to deploy into the country to enforce a peace deal with the Kremlin, after Trump ruled out putting any American soldiers on the ground.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia yesterday ahead of today’s opening salvo of the peace talks with Russian officials.
Colonel Philip Ingram has warned Keir Starmer could face a real problem if and when British peacekeepers are sent to Ukraine
Kremlin forces currently control a vast 600-mile long stretch of land in the south-east of Ukraine, occupying large swathes Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. While Ukrainian forces continue to control their small foothold in Russia at Kursk.
Although terms have not yet been set, under any peace deal it is likely a demilitarised zone – similar to that dividing North and South Korea – would be set up, which would be policed by foreign peacekeepers, likely made up of British and European allies.
However, Col Ingram said the operation to protect Ukraine would be fraught with danger and had the potential to trigger a wider, more devastating conflict.
He said should Putin attack, it could trigger Article 5 of Nato, prompting a response from every alliance member, which would drag the world into a new global war.
Describing how the crisis could explode, Col Ingram said: ‘First you would send a stiff letter to Moscow demanding them to stop shooting your troops. If that doesn’t work, then you deliver it at the end of a cruise missile. If they still don’t listen, you send 100 cruise missiles to 100 different targets… It all just escalates.’
Experts suggest that a potential force of up to 100,000 could be needed to police any peace deal.
British troops are seen rehearsing cold weather drills during a deployment to Norway. Experts say between 15,000 and 25,000 could be deployed on peacekeeping duties in Ukraine
Keir Starmer (pictured second from right, with defence secretary Jon Healey, second from left) said the UK would be sending British troops into Ukraine, if a peacekeeping force was needed
However, realistically, this would mean committing three times this number to the operation, with 100,000 soldiers in training while a further 100,000 would be recuperating from a six-month deployment.
A British contingent could involve anything from 15,000 to 25,000 troops, experts said – with former military chiefs warning such a commitment would ‘swallow up’ a large bulk of the already-diminished Army.
A naval task group, potentially spearheaded by the Royal Navy and led by one of Britain’s two near aircraft carriers, could also be positioned in the Mediterranean or even the Black Sea to enforce a peace pact.
‘This is bigger than anything the UK has been involved in ever, if it goes the way it could go,’ Col Ingram warned.
He said arranging and deploying a peacekeeping force would take anything from six to 12 months to do. ‘You could not do it any faster than that,’ Col Ingram added.
‘The force needs to be credible and needs to be ready to fight. If you don’t have a robust and credible force, you just put your troops in more danger – and then you could end up calling in Article 5 to get them out.’
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who commanded Britain’s nuclear force, said such a force had to be heavily armed and ready to fight to show a message to ‘bully boy’ Putin.
‘Putin exploits weakness and respects strength – and we are where we are because we have been weak,’ Col de Bretton-Gordon told MailOnline.
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon (pictured), who commanded Britain’s nuclear force, said such a force had to be heavily armed and ready to fight to show a message to Putin
British troops driving Jackal combat vehicles descend from M3 amphibious rigs of the German/British Amphibious Engineer Battalion 130 after crossing the Vistula River during the NATO Dragon 24 military exercise on March 4, 2024
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are to hold talks to reach an agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine without inviting other European leaders to engage in negotiations following a phone call earlier this month (both are pictured together in 2019)
Speaking of a potential peacekeeping force, he added: ‘It’s got to have enough punch to absolutely smash any forces that look to do an incursion. It can’t just be a few guys with some rifles.’
But military experts have questioned whether any ‘peace deal’ would ever be stuck to by Putin, with Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Defence Secretary Jon Healey previously warning the despot was ‘seeking to recreate the Russian empire and suffocate the countries around its borders’.
Defence analysts fear the risk of the Russian tyrant turning his back on a deal and continue to wage war in Ukraine was high, with the Kremlin potentially using a lull in the fighting to rebuild its severely depleted forces after three years of fighting.
Putin could also employ gorilla groups to strike at peacekeepers, experts said, by supporting separatist forces like the ones used to assault Ukraine’s eastern flank in 2014, when the Crimean peninsula was illegally annexed.
Ed Arnold, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said the force used to defend Ukraine would need to be a powerful ‘coalition of the willing’.
However, he added it would be unlikely to be led by either Nato or the UN.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky meets United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday in Abu Dhabi
Next week will mark the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine. Pictured are troops from Ukraine’s 24th Mechanised Brigade
‘This isn’t a peace keeping force or Bosnia ‘94, this is a pretty well-equipped combat force. It’s a full warfighting force that is required on this,’ Mr Arnold said.
The European security expert also raised concerns about the political strain such a deployment could put on European Nato allies, fearing clashes over how to deliver such a commitment could ultimately lead to the 75-year-old alliance’s downfall.
And he questioned how long such a mission would take, highlighting how Americans still had troops deployed to enforce the ceasefire between North and South Korea, first agreed in 1953.
‘The biggest risk is that we – because of Trump’s desire to get a deal early – jump into this with ill-thought out aims to please the Americans and they become open-ended and really ending in failure.
‘That could be fundamentally fatal to Nato, even if this not a Nato mission,’ he warned last night.
Col Ingram added Putin still wanted to be seen as a ‘global superpower’ and would would be celebrating peace deal talks with Trump.
‘Putin will be sat behind his big oak table with a massive grin on his face, a very large glass of bottle of best Russian vodka with ice with a great white cat over his knee. He will be delighted. We need a James Bond character to go in and take “Blofeld Putin” out,’ the former intelligence officer added.
It comes as Keir Starmer delivered a stark warning to Trump against letting Ukraine become an Afghanistan-style disaster as he vowed UK troops will help guarantee any peace deal.
The PM made the comparison with the collapse of Kabul in 2021 – which Mr Trump branded ‘one of the greatest defeats in American history’ – as he urged the US not to make too many concessions to Russia.
In an article for the Telegraph, Sir Keir made clear he is hoping to use the ‘Special Relationship’ to act as a ‘bridge’ with the new White House. A visit is due to happen next week.
But he also highlighted the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal under Joe Biden, something Mr Trump heavily criticised although he was accused of drawing up the original deal with the Taliban.
‘President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people have shown the most extraordinary resilience,’ Sir Keir said.
‘We cannot have a situation like Afghanistan, where the US negotiated directly with the Taliban and cut out the Afghan government.
‘I feel sure that president Trump will want to avoid this too.’
In his article, Sir Keir said the UK needs to be ‘ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary’.
‘I do not say that lightly,’ he wrote. ‘I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way. But any role in helping to guarantee security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country.’
Ukrainian mortarmen pictured during conflict with Russian forces in Toretsk on February 14
A man films damaged shopping centre with his phone after a drone strike in Kharkiv on February 6, 2025
An explosion of a drone is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 5, 2025
The premier made the announcement ahead of an emergency gathering of European leaders in Paris in response to President Donald Trump’s push for a deal with Russian despot Putin and fears the US will reduce its defence commitments in the continent.
Sir Keir said the crisis was a ‘once in a generation moment’ and an ‘existential’ question for Europe.
Government sources said the ambition is still to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on the military – despite urgent calls to go beyond that figure – and that the timetable for reaching his goal would not be accelerated.
The PM said the UK was ‘ready to play a leading role’ in Ukraine’s defence and security, including the commitment of £3billion a year until 2030.
But he said that along with military aid to Ukraine ‘it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary’.
‘The end of this war, when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again,’ he said.
Sir Keir has previously only hinted that British troops could be involved in safeguarding Ukraine after a ceasefire, but in an explicit message aimed at encouraging both European allies and Mr Trump to commit to deterring a future attack he confirmed he could deploy the military.
The premier, who is due to visit Mr Trump in Washington later this month, said: ‘While European nations must step up in this moment – and we will – US support will remain critical and a US security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace, because only the US can deter Putin from attacking again.’
A view of the damaged Lgov town after the Ukrainian army launched attacks in Kursk Oblast, Russia on January 16, 2025
Ukrainian soldiers of the 93rd Brigade attend the combat drills outside of the Pokrovsk, Ukraine on February 13, 2025
A view of the damaged Lgov town after the Ukrainian army launched attacks in Kursk Oblast, Russia on January 16, 2025
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 – with the third anniversary of the war taking place next week.
President Zelensky said that since the fighting began, some 46,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed and some 380,000 wounded.
Among the dead include at least 30 Britons fighting for Ukraine.
Statistics on Russian casualties vary widely. The only official Kremlin statement on the matter, released in 2022, claimed fewer than 6,000 dead.
However, the British Ministry of Defence said last month that almost 800,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded, while the Ukrainians suggest 198,000 Russians have died.
But stark estimates elsewhere have put the total killed or injured at more than one million.
MailOnline approached the Ministry of Defence for comment.
