US, European military chiefs discuss security guarantees for Ukraine

Top military leaders from the US and some European countries  have been working on plans to help provide security guarantees to Ukraine, officials said. 

They shared their ideas with national security advisers this week, as efforts continue to find ways of protecting the country while the war with Russia drags on.

This followed US President Donald Trump’s pledge to help protect the country under any deal to end Russia’s three-and-a-half-year-old war in Ukraine.

A Pentagon statement said US and European planners had developed the military options for “appropriate consideration” by allied national security advisers. Reuters was the first to report that the military leaders were preparing the options.

The chiefs of defence for the United States, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ukraine met in Washington, DC, between Tuesday and Thursday.

A source familiar with the matter said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, held a conference call on Thursday with his European counterparts to discuss the options.

A separate US official said Rubio spoke with UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, the European Commission president’s head of cabinet Bjoern Seibert, NATO secretary general’s chief of staff Geoffrey van Leeuwen, and other national security counterparts in France, Italy, Germany and Finland.

Final details must still be worked out, the source familiar with the matter said, but European countries would provide “the lion’s share” of any forces involved in security guarantees for Ukraine.

That echoed Vice President JD Vance’s comment on Wednesday that Europe would need to shoulder “the lion’s share” of the costs of the operation.

“The planning work continues,” said the source, adding that Washington was still “determining the scope of its role.”

Trump has said he will not deploy US troops in Ukraine but has left the door open to other US military involvement, including air support.

Troop deployments

One option was sending European forces to Ukraine but putting the United States in charge of their command and control, sources told Reuters.

US air support could come in several ways, including providing more air defence systems to Ukraine and enforcing a no-fly zone with US fighter jets.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have both supported troop deployments as part of a “coalition of the willing”, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also signalling openness to his country’s participation.

The head of Germany’s soldiers’ union said on Thursday that European NATO leaders must face the reality that tens of thousands of troops would need to be deployed in a Ukraine peace force for the long term.

Trump has pressed for a quick end to Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years, while Kyiv and its allies have expressed concern he could seek to force an agreement on Russia’s terms.