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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said he would not send US troops to enforce a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
However, he left open the possibility of providing air support, saying: “We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air.”
European and US military officers met in Washington D.C. yesterday to discuss how a possible Ukraine peace deal might work.
It came in the wake of multiple European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meeting in the White House on Monday as tentative plans form for a bilateral meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Top US officer General Dan Caine held talks yesterday evening with European military heads to discuss “best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal”, a US defense official said.
The in-person talks come before a virtual meeting today of military heads from Nato’s 32 member countries.
Trump said earlier that European nations were “willing to put people on the ground” to secure any settlement.
“France and Germany, a couple of them, UK, they want to have boots on the ground,” he said, speaking to Fox News. “We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air.”
Asked what assurances Trump had that US troops would not be sent, he replied: “Well, you have my assurance and I’m president.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later told reporters that Trump “has definitively stated US boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine”, while use of US air power was an “option and a possibility.”
Putin and Zelenskyy have both said they that are willing to meet with each other, though many details of how that meeting would work and what might come out of it are still up in the air.
Russia has insisted that any solution must also protect its own “security interests” and is demanding that Ukraine does not join Nato.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added that any meeting between the leaders “must be prepared very thoroughly.”
Lavrov’s comments, and Putin’s offer of Moscow as a summit venue, reinforced European fears that Russia was once again stalling.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he favored Geneva, a historic venue for peace talks. Switzerland expressed readiness to offer immunity to Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the war, to facilitate the talks.
A potential site for a follow-up three-way summit including Trump is Budapest in Hungary.
Additional reporting by AFP
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