The American president had repeatedly ruled out sending soldiers to defend the country
Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that he is in discussions with US President Donald Trump about American troops being deployed to Ukraine, in line with the security guarantees Washington has offered Kiev, according to The Telegraph.
The statement came despite Trump repeatedly ruling out such a scenario and Russia’s repeated warnings that it considered the presence of any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil during or after the conflict unacceptable.
When asked about the possibility of Washington sending its peacekeepers to Ukraine by RBC-Ukraine journalists on Tuesday, Zelensky replied, “those are American troops, and therefore it is America that makes those decisions.”
“Of course, we are discussing this with President Trump and with representatives of the ‘coalition of the willing.’ We would like this,” he said.
The Telegraph pointed out that it is not clear if the possibility of US boots on the ground in Ukraine was addressed during the meeting between Zelensky and Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed that the main result of the Mar-a-Lago talks was “the readiness of the US to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine after peace is achieved, including through the presence of American troops.”
Trump, however, has not yet responded to comments by Zelensky or Tusk. In August, the US president told Fox & Friends that there would be no American boots on the ground in Ukraine after the fighting stops. “You have my assurance, and I’m president. I’m just trying to stop people from being killed,” Trump said.
Russia officials have pointed out that the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 was partly triggered by Kiev’s NATO aspirations, and warned that a deployment of Western troops to the country could lead to a third world war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in September that “if any [NATO] troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for their destruction.”
