1,500 British and French troops are heading to Poland in September—the first physical test of Europe’s plan to guarantee Ukraine’s security

1,500 British and French troops will deploy to Poland in September for the first joint exercises of the Coalition of the Willing, Poland’s Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Bejda said on TVP Info. The maneuvers will focus on moving troops and equipment at scale—transport and logistics, not combat.

“We are preparing for operations connected with the transfer and transport of forces. We want to show that we know how to do this,” Bejda said.

The Coalition of the Willing was formed in March 2025 as a European-led framework to guarantee Ukraine’s security after any ceasefire, and it has spent more than a year turning pledges into forces it can actually send. By April 2025, only six of 30 member countries had committed troops. British military planners floated a 64,000-strong force. European ministers doubted they could muster even 25,000. The September exercise puts the coalition’s central promise—that Britain and France can lead a credible multinational force—to its first test with troops on the ground rather than in a communiqué.

Why logistics is the real test

Since Russia’s full-scale war, Poland has handled 95% of allied military aid transiting to Ukraine, Bejda noted. The September drills rehearse that same task: moving forces and equipment through the corridor a security-guarantee force would rely on.

Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said the country is becoming the site of Europe’s most important military exercises. Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk said the maneuvers would prepare the coalition for “real security guarantees for Ukraine, but also for the region.”

What still isn’t resolved

In February 2026, British and French paratroopers rehearsed rapid Ukraine deployment in Exercise Orion. Days earlier, a growing number of coalition members had privately conceded their troop contributions depended on Moscow’s approval—effectively handing President of Russia Vladimir Putin a veto over the force meant to deter him.

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