‘Battle hardened’ Ukraine has role to play in defending Europe, says ex-Nato chief

A Ukrainian serviceman prepares to launch a Hornet drone towards Russian troops near a frontline in the Donetsk region. Photograph: Reuters View image in fullscreen A Ukrainian serviceman prepares to launch a Hornet drone towards Russian troops near a frontline in the Donetsk region. Photograph: Reuters ‘Battle hardened’ Ukraine has role to play in defending Europe, says ex-Nato chief Country is ‘militarily the strongest in Europe’, says Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who wants coalition ready in case US pulls troops The US’s attitude to the defence of Europe has changed permanently and a European coalition of the willing, including Ukraine , should be established to defend the continent, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general, has said. A coalition of the willing compromising 45 states is already in theory poised to act as a reassurance and training force inside Ukraine in the event of a peace settlement with Russia. Rasmussen, a former close adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy , is proposing an adaptation of the concept so that an expanded version of the coalition provides security guarantees for continental Europe, not just Ukraine. Rasmussen sees the coalition as an insurance force in case Donald Trump suddenly removes US troops and European defence partners are not ready to fill the gap. View image in fullscreen Anders Fogh Rasmussen has acted as a close adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photograph: Jussi Nukari/Shutterstock At a seminar on Monday on European defence, he said: “I would propose a coalition of the willing in which a number of European countries come together that are capable and willing to do what is needed to defend the continent, including Ukraine. The force would be led by the two nuclear powers in Europe, France and the UK.” Rasmussen’s proposal came two days before a meeting of five leading European defence powers in Berlin on Wednesday, to draw up a common defence strategy in the run-up to a Nato summit in Ankara on 7 July. The summit will be focused on proving to Trump that his instruction for Europe to spend more on its own defence has been followed. The summit is preparing to agree a new target of €70bn (£60bn) extra spending for Ukraine over two years, with the sums contributing to the commitment made by individual countries to spend up to a minimum of 5% of GDP on defence by 2035. European defence officials partly back the target as a way of casting a spotlight on how support for Ukraine is so heavily concentrated on five or so states, predominantly Germany, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth , has announced a review of the US troop numbers in Europe, but so far at the military level there is confidence that the Trump administration drawdown will not be so sudden as to leave Europe’s security at risk. Rasmussen said Ukraine had to be an integrated part of a new European security architecture. “However this conflict ends, we still have an aggr