Twenty-six Western allies have formally committed to deploying troops “by land, sea or air” to Ukraine the day after a ceasefire deal is agreed, Emmanuel Macron has said.
After a summit of 35 countries dubbed the “Coalition of the Willing”, the French president said US support for their “reassurance force” would be finalised in the coming days.
President Donald Trump recently indicated that US backing could “probably” come in the form of air support, and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said he had spoken to the US president about “maximum protection for Ukraine’s skies”.
However, hopes of a deal to end the fighting have dimmed since Russia’s Vladimir Putin met Trump in Alaska last month.
Trump also said the EU should work with the US to halt imports of Russian oil and gas, to halt Russia’s “war machine by economic means”, according to an account of the phone-call from Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
The 27-member European Union has set a target of ending all gas and oil imports by the end of 2027.
A White House official pointed out that Russia had received €1.1bn (£954m; $1.3bn) in fuel sales from the EU in one year, although the true figure is far higher.
More than three-and-a-half years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin said this week there was “a certain light at the end of the tunnel” and that “there are options for ensuring Ukraine’s security in the event the conflict ends”.
The prospect of a direct meeting involving Putin and Zelensky has become increasingly unlikely since it was suggested last month by President Trump.
Putin suggested this week Zelensky could come to Moscow for talks, an idea branded “unacceptable” by Kyiv. The Ukrainian leader said it was indication Russia did not really want the meeting to take place.
Nato chief Mark Rutte said on Thursday that Russia had no veto on Western troops being deployed to Ukraine: “Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It’s a sovereign country. It’s not for them to decide.”
Trump told CBS News on Wednesday that he remained committed to reaching a deal to end the war and said he continued to have a good relationship with both Putin and Zelensky.
“I think we’re going to get it all straightened out,” he said.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey has praised Trump, who he says “brought Putin into talks” and “not closed off any options”.
The Russian leader, who spent Wednesday with China’s Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, claims that his country’s military is pushing forward on all fronts in Ukraine.
He warned that without a deal Moscow was prepared to “resolve all our tasks militarily”.
Russia has rejected the idea of an initial ceasefire, insisting its campaign will not end before a full peace deal.
A source at the Élysée Palace suggested ahead of Thursday’s talks that there were several historical examples of ceasefires that had lasted without a full peace agreement.
The source pointed to the demarcation line between North and South Korea, where a ceasefire had lasted for years with a powerfully armed, allied American deployment serving as a signal to North Korea. That concept was extremely important for the Ukrainians, the source added.
