Britain may provide two brigades to be deployed to the multinational army it leads in Ukraine, The Guardian ezine reports, citing military sources.

The publication notes that the brigade consists of several thousand servicemen.

Officially, data on the possible number of military personnel to be deployed in Ukraine has not been announced yet.

According to the publication, constraining any UK contribution is the small size of the British army – at 71,347 at the last count in October. Britain is also committed to providing a brigade to defend Estonia in the event of a crisis, and there could be further pressures across Europe if the US decides to withdraw some of its 100,000 troops in Europe.

At the same time, Britain believes that a European-led security guarantee to Ukraine could be provided with considerably fewer troops than the 100,000 to 150,000 called for by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week in the event of a peace agreement.

A European-led assurance force for Ukraine would not necessarily involve large numbers stationed on the frontline, and could therefore be in the region of a few tens of thousands strong – or even fewer, the sources of The Guardian reported.

The Guardian noted that the security package could make heavy use of intelligence, surveillance and long-range reconnaissance capabilities to monitor any Russian attempts to breach a line of control agreed in a ceasefire or final peace settlement.

An alternative scenario canvassed was that there would be no European troops stationed in Ukraine at all, and that the focus of the security effort would be on the long-range monitoring.

Though this would be obviously attractive to Russia, which said on Tuesday it would not accept any troops from a Nato country being stationed in Ukraine, it would be unacceptable to Kyiv, which fears a renewed attack from Moscow and wants as large a postwar security force as possible.

It is noted that last week Zelenskyy used an interview with the Guardian to call for a deterrence force of between 100,000 and 150,000 to be based in Ukraine, although that number would be almost impossible to achieve with just European troops.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported that the size of a European force under discussion could amount to about 30,000. UK sources would not confirm this figure while talks were under way with Europe but they did indicate that a force of this magnitude was most likely envisaged.

Meanwhile, Starmer is expected to lobby the US president, Donald Trump, directly on the topic when he flies to Washington next week, raising the stakes for what could be a critical meeting in the efforts to find a peace settlement to end the Ukraine war.