President Trump has committed in principle to providing “security guarantees” to Ukraine to safeguard its frontier from Russia following a possible peace deal, The Post has confirmed.
The precise contours of those security guarantees, which were discussed by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage on Friday, remain unclear, however. Trump has not committed to sending US troops and previously ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine.
The security may amount to a European-led initiative with America’s support, a source familiar with the talks said.
French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer offered to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine earlier this year, which would place on their nations’ shoulders the human and financial cost of shielding Kyiv after the US has already spent $200 billion since Moscow’s invasion began in 2022.
The US has a mutual defense agreement with the UK and France, meaning that their presence on the frontlines would offer a form of protection to Ukraine resembling NATO membership — Trump has adamantly rejected formal admission of Kyiv to the military alliance — which Putin vehemently opposes.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization maintains that if one NATO is attacked, it would be considered an attack on all 32 members of the group. --->READ MORE HERE
U.S. president says that Putin accepted that any peace would need to include presence of Western troops in Ukraine to ensure its durability
President Trump told European leaders that he was open to offering U.S. security guarantees to Ukraine, according to several European officials, a significant shift in his stance toward America’s role in any end to the war.
The officials, who spoke with Trump after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, said Trump told them Putin wouldn’t stop fighting during any peace talks and insisted Ukraine cede territory in the country’s east in exchange for a freeze of the front line elsewhere.
Putin accepted, Trump said, that any peace would need to include the presence of Western troops in Ukraine as a way of ensuring its durability, according to four of the officials.
European leaders had been told by the U.S. ahead of the summit in Anchorage that Moscow had indicated to Washington that it was willing to accept a temporary cease-fire and would attend a second round of talks toward a longer-term peace, according to three of the European officials.
But in a call from Air Force One on his way home from the summit, Trump relayed to the Europeans that Putin wanted to keep fighting, the officials said.
Kyiv has long sought U.S. security guarantees as a bulwark against future Russian aggression under any peace deal. But some U.S. officials have insisted that the U.S. wouldn’t act as a guarantor for Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s determination to win some kind of security guarantee from Washington contributed to the angry confrontation between Trump and the Ukrainian leader at the Oval Office in February.
The White House hasn’t spoken publicly about security guarantees for Ukraine since Trump arrived in Alaska for the meeting with Putin.
Trump’s apparent shift on the matter, indicated to the Europeans, is notable because for months he had rejected Zelensky’s request for such a U.S. role, fearing it would mire the U.S. in a foreign war. Trump also hadn’t responded to a European request to provide some form of backstop to any European troops potentially deployed to Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
U.S. security guarantees could potentially enable Zelensky to compromise in talks with Putin, provided Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith, some of the European officials who took part in the call said.
Three people familiar with the call said Trump indicated guarantees could include U.S. military support for a European-led security force in Ukraine but didn’t commit to American forces stationed on the ground.
The security guarantees as described by Trump on the call included bilateral security commitments and financial and military support for Ukraine’s armed forces by a Western coalition of the willing including the U.S., three of the European officials said.
The people on the calls gave different interpretations of Trump’s position on whether there would be a U.S. military component in any security guarantee.
In a joint statement Saturday after calls with Trump and among themselves, European leaders appeared to reference the president’s offer for security guarantees.
“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Poland, Italy, Finland and the European Union institutions said in the statement. “We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to give security guarantees.” ---->READ MORE HERE or HERE
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