President Trump offered his assurances Tuesday that U.S. boots would not be on the ground to defend the Ukraine-Russia border as part of any security assurances for Kyiv to end the war.
“What kind of assurances do you feel like you have that going forward, and past this Trump administration, it won’t be American boots on the ground defending that border?” co-host Charles Hurt asked Trump during a phone interview on “Fox & Friends.”
“Well, you have my assurance — and I’m president. I’m just trying to stop people from being killed,” Trump responded.
The president had indicated earlier in the interview that European nations may put boots on the ground. It’s unclear if Russia would agree to that as part of any peace agreement.
“We’ve got the European nations, and they’ll front-load it, and they’ll have, some of them … they want to have, you know, boots on the ground,” Trump said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired, I think they’re all tired of it. But, you never know.”
Trump called into “Fox & Friends” the day after he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and top European leaders at the White House for talks on how to end the war in Ukraine, which has been raging since Russian forces invaded in 2022.
Trump and European officials discussed potential security assurances for Ukraine as part of a peace deal that would prevent future Russian aggression, though the specifics remain murky. Zelensky said he hoped those details would be ironed out in the next 10 days.
Trump has definitively ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine as part of any peace deal.
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