WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met at the White House on Thursday. Their primary focus was on the war in Ukraine. While the pair had a friendly tone during their meeting, they will face some tough conversations about Ukraine. Starmer will try to get assurance that the US does not abandon Ukraine.
The President believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin will agree on a peace deal and keep that deal. Starmer said they’re prepared to send a peacekeeping troop from the UK to Ukraine to deter future attacks from Russia. The Kremlin said a peacekeeping force from NATO countries would be unacceptable and called it a direct threat to Russian sovereignty.
Right now, the US and Russia are in the middle of peace negotiations but European and Ukrainian officials said they need to be included in these talks as part of the collective security for the region.
We spoke with Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick (R- PA), who is on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. We asked what measures need to be put in place to deter future Russian attacks on Ukraine:
“Whatever the final resolution is, it needs to give Ukraine the assurance- and they won’t have a deal unless this assurance is going to be able to secure them in the future against further invasion from Russia,” said Sen. McCormick. “And whether that’s [European] boots on the ground or some economic arrangement- I like the idea of the Europeans taking a leading role financially and with troops. I wouldn’t be in favor of US troops deployed as part of that, but I like the idea of Europeans taking that on.”
On Friday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit with Trump at the White House. We expect the pair to sign a minerals and economic agreement for the US, but it’s unclear if the deal includes any security assurances from the US.
