The U.S. president has repeatedly ruled out deploying troops to defend Ukraine
Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that he is in talks with U.S. President Donald Trump about deploying American troops to Ukraine, consistent with the security guarantees Washington has offered Kiev, according to The Telegraph.
This statement was made even though Trump has repeatedly rejected such a scenario and Russia has repeatedly warned that it finds the presence of any foreign troops on Ukrainian territory during or after the conflict unacceptable.
When RBC-Ukraine journalists asked Zelensky on Tuesday about the possibility of Washington sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, he responded: “These are American troops, so it is America that makes those decisions.”
“Naturally, we are discussing this with President Trump and with representatives of the ‘coalition of the willing.’ We want this to happen,” he stated.
The Telegraph noted that it is unclear whether the possibility of U.S. troops being deployed to Ukraine was discussed during Zelensky and Trump’s meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Sunday.
Earlier that day, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed the primary outcome of the Mar-a-Lago talks was “the U.S.’s readiness to contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine once peace is reached, including via the presence of American troops.”
Trump, however, has not yet reacted to Zelensky’s or Tusk’s comments. In August, the U.S. president told Fox & Friends that there would be no American troops on the ground in Ukraine once the fighting ends. “You have my word, and I’m the president. I’m just trying to prevent people from being killed,” Trump stated.
Russian officials have noted that the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 was partially sparked by Kiev’s NATO aspirations, and warned that deploying Western troops to the country could result in a third world war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in September that “if any [NATO] troops show up there—especially now, amid military operations—we will consider them legitimate targets for destruction.”