President Donald Trump left open the possibility that the U.S. military could have a physical presence in Ukraine in the post-war aftermath.
During the highly anticipated meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday, he said the U.S. would be “involved” in the security guarantees Ukraine seeks to end the conflict and ensure Russia cannot restart it at a time of their choosing when they’re better equipped.
Trump did not specify exactly what the U.S.’s involvement could include, but he did not rule out a U.S. military presence in Ukraine once the war ends.
“Well, we‘re going to work with Ukraine. We‘re going to work with everybody, and we‘re going to make sure that if there‘s peace, the peace is going to stay long term,” Trump said in the Oval Office next to Zelensky. “This is a very long term. We‘re not talking about a two year peace and then we end up in this mess again.”
The president was then asked directly about the possibility of a U.S. military presence as one of the security guarantees, and Trump said that would be a topic of conversation when he and Zelensky talk with a handful of other European leaders who traveled to Washington, D.C. on Monday to meet with them.
“We’ll let you know that maybe later today. We‘re meeting with seven great leaders of great countries also, and we‘ll be talking about that. They’ll all be involved, but there‘ll be a lot of help when it comes to security. There’s going to be a lot of help, it‘s going to be good. They are [the] first line of defense because they’re there,” Trump said, referencing European countries. “But we‘re going to help them out also. We‘ll be involved.”
The president’s remarks were made ahead of his bilateral conversation with Zelensky, and a meeting between them with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Over the weekend, United States Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said Russia agreed to allow “Article 5-like protection,” for Ukraine during Friday’s meeting between Trump and Putin, which a reference to NATO’s founding charter that states an attack on one NATO ally is treated like an attack against all members.
Trump has said he does not believe Ukraine should join the alliance. The Kremlin also does not want Ukraine to join NATO.
The president has said his ultimate goal is to end the war, and has acknowledged it will mean both sides will have to make difficult concessions. Trump has said both sides may have to give up territory — either Russia giving Ukraine territory it currently occupies or Ukraine sacrificing occupied territory and redrawing the borders. Neither side has expressed a willingness to do so.
Zelensky has rebuffed any mention of formalizing the annexation of Ukrainian territory in a deal, though his hands are tied anyway because the Ukrainian constitution bars the redrawing of their borders.
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He and other senior Ukrainian leaders have long talked about the need for security guarantees to ensure that there would be a robust response if Russia, after ending the war, decided to resume it.
Putin launched the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014. The world pretty much let it happen without coming to Ukraine’s support. Eight years later, he decided he wanted to overthrow the government and take control of Ukraine. In the early days of the war, they did not receive much western military aid due to the belief that they would lose the war in a matter of days or weeks.
