The US has asked European countries to provide detailed proposals for the weapons, peacekeeping troops, and security measures they could provide to Ukraine as part of any security guarantees.
The FT writes about this, citing four unnamed Western officials.
The US wants to calculate Europeʼs willingness to protect Ukraine after a peaceful settlement, to determine the price that Europe is willing to pay in exchange for participating in negotiations with Moscow, the FT notes.
Therefore, in a document to the Europeans, the US State Department requested detailed information about the military equipment that European capitals would be able to provide and the number of military brigades they would be ready to deploy.
“This [document] is a way for us to make sure we are involved,” said one European official.
The American official noted that the document asks for "specific proposals or ideas" about what a European-led security agreement might look like.
The US request was sent this week, just as the leaders of European countries announced the need for their participation in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Putin, which the American leader announced on Wednesday.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte noted that, regardless of the US request, European countries must clearly understand how they can step up their efforts.
"I hear European countries complaining that they donʼt immediately have a seat at the [negotiating] table. My argument is that first organize yourselves together, discuss and... think about what the European contribution can be," he stated.
The Anxios publication, which revealed the details of the conversation between Zelensky and Trump, noted that the US president supported the idea of deploying European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine — this could become one of the security guarantees.
After that, the AP wrote that a group of European countries were privately working on a plan to send troops to Ukraine to help with post-war security.
Europeʼs participation in the settlement of the war in Ukraine
After US President Donald Trump reported that during a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin they agreed to immediately begin peace talks, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany and the European Union stressed in a statement that Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.
During the Munich Security Conference, Trumpʼs special representative Keith Kellogg stated that Europe will not physically sit at the negotiating table between Russia and Ukraine, but its interests will be taken into account.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called European leaders to an emergency summit in Paris on Monday, February 18. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he expects European leaders to discuss “very seriously” the challenges posed by the US President Donald Trump.
It is not yet known whether all EU leaders will attend the meeting. There is also no information whether other European leaders, such as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, will be invited.
Trumpʼs plans for Ukraine
During the election campaign, Trump claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine “in one day”. However, after being elected president, his narratives changed. The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal wrote that he instructed special envoy Keith Kellogg to end the war in 100 days.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he could not give a specific date for the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine, but both sides will have to make some concessions because they will not be able to achieve their maximum goals.
Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stressed that the state will defend its integrity and will not cede its territories to Russia. In September 2024, Zelensky met with Trump and presented him with a victory plan.
Trump said on February 9 that he has a concrete plan to end the war and wants to make a $500 billion deal with Volodymyr Zelensky for access to rare earth minerals and gas in Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees in a potential peace deal.
Zelensky said that Kyiv was open to partnership on this issue, but he did not sign the agreement on this because it did not provide security guarantees for Ukraine.
According to President Zelensky, there is no clear information about Trumpʼs plans for war. Ukraine has not yet been consulted about this. Kyiv fears that Trump and Putin may conclude a deal without taking into account Ukrainian interests.
On February 15, Kellogg said he wanted to bring all sides to talks to end the war within 180 days, with the United States acting as a mediator. At the same time, he stressed that this “will not be Minsk 2”. He noted that Europe’s position on a peaceful settlement would be taken into account, but there would be no physical European representatives at the negotiating table.
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