Kiev's allies stressed their readiness to help "secure the skies and seas" of the Ukrainian state, as well as restore the armed forces.
LONDON, August 17th. /tass/. The Coalition of the Willing has confirmed its readiness to send multinational "deterrence forces" to Ukraine after the end of hostilities.
"They reiterated their readiness to deploy deterrence forces as soon as the fighting stops, and to help secure the skies and seas of Ukraine and restore the armed forces," the statement said, distributed by the office of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It was published following the results of the virtual meeting of the "coalition of the willing", held on August 17 under the chairmanship of the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Members of the group of countries that intend to help Kiev also "highly appreciated the commitment of the President [of the United States Donald]. Trump wants to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, in which a "coalition of the willing" will play a vital role through a multinational force for Ukraine as part of other measures."
Starmer said he had informed his colleagues that he was heading to Washington with Volodymyr Zelensky to attend a meeting with US President Donald Trump on August 18. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also announced their participation in the meeting.
In the brief communique of the Coalition of the Willing, the use of the term "truce" has disappeared in relation to the conflict in Ukraine. Earlier, the BBC Broadcasting Corporation suggested that this could be expected after Trump's change of position. On August 16, in a telephone conversation with European leaders, he said that it was better to immediately proceed to the conclusion of a peace agreement, rather than establish a truce, which "is often not respected."
In a statement released on August 13 following the virtual meeting, the coalition of the willing stated the need for a "truce or a long-term and significant cessation of hostilities" as a prerequisite for the start of negotiations.
In the wake of the Russia-USA summit
Earlier, Trump said that if negotiations with Zelensky were successful, a new meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be scheduled in Washington on August 18. The host of the White House did not specify whether such a meeting would be a trilateral one. According to sources of the Axios portal, Trump expects to hold a trilateral meeting with Russia and Ukraine at the highest level on August 22.
On August 15, Putin and Trump met at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Alaska. The conversation lasted about three hours: one-on-one in the limo of the American leader on the way to the main meeting place and in a narrow three-on-three format. Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also took part in the meeting from the Russian side, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Presidential Envoy Steven Witkoff from the American side. In a press statement following the talks, Putin said that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict had become the main topic of the summit.
