US backs security guarantees for Ukraine, as France and UK pledge troops

The United States has backed security guarantees for Ukraine, including leading a truce monitoring mechanism, as France and the United Kingdom pledged to deploy forces to Ukrainian territory if a ceasefire is reached with Russia.

The pledges came on Tuesday at a summit of the “Coalition of the Willing” in Paris, where representatives of 35 countries, including 27 heads of state or government, gathered to firm up post-war guarantees for Kyiv.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the “robust” guarantees would see the US lead a truce monitoring mechanism with European participation, alongside the deployment of a multinational European force.

Macron, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a declaration of intent after the talks, setting out the framework for such a deployment.

Macron said that Paris could contribute “several thousand” troops.

In a sign of closer transatlantic coordination, the summit was also attended by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared ⁠Kushner – President Donald Trump’s son-in-law – as well as Washington’s top general in Europe, Alexus Grynkewich. It marked the first time the US envoys had joined the coalition’s talks.

Witkoff, who has led talks with Russia, ​said that Trump “strongly stands behind security protocols” and that the guarantees are “important so that the people of Ukraine know that when this ends, it ends forever”.

He added, “Those security protocols are meant to a) deter any attacks, any further attacks in Ukraine. And b) if there are any attacks, they’re meant to defend and they will do both.”