EU leaders urge Trump toward security guarantees for Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, alongside several other European leaders, to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and broader European stability. The meeting comes as efforts to negotiate a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia continue following Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska.

Macron stressed the importance of long-term guarantees, something Trump also discussed in this joint meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday. “When we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent, and this is why we are all united here with Ukraine on this matter,” he said. Macron added that ensuring peace requires both a "credible Ukrainian army for decades to come" and commitments from European nations themselves. “You can be sure that Europeans are very lucid about the fact that they have their fair share in the security guarantees for Ukraine, but their own security is clearly at stake in this situation,” Macron said.
 

Starmer stressed that all the parties in the room "want peace," noting that the war has had impacts not just on Ukraine, but on Europe as a whole. "And when we talk about security, we’re talking about security not just of Ukraine, we’re talking about the security of Europe and the United Kingdom as well. Which is why this is such an important issue." He said that he felt the parties could make "real progress… particularly on the security guarantees and your indication of security guarantees of some sort of Article 5-style guarantees fits with what we have been doing with the Coalition of the Willing."

Starmer added that a "historic step actually could come out of this meeting in terms of security for Ukraine and security in Europe. I also feel that we can make real progress towards a just and lasting outcome. Obviously that has to involve Ukraine, and a trilateral meeting seems the sensible next step."

President Trump signaled earlier in the day that the US is prepared to provide strong protection for Ukraine as part of any peace arrangement. “We're going to be discussing it today, but we will give them very good protection, very good security. That's part of it,” he said, emphasizing that any settlement must be long-term. When asked whether US peacekeepers would be involved, Trump said, “We're going to work with Ukraine. We're going to work with everybody, and we're going to make sure that if there's peace, the peace is going to stay long term. This is very long term… We'll work with Russia. We'll work with Ukraine. We'll make sure it works. And I think if we can get to peace, it's going to work. I have no doubt about it.”

The White House meetings follow Trump’s summit with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, last Friday, where both sides described progress toward resolving the conflict. Trump has proposed a trilateral meeting between the US, Russia, and Ukraine as early as Friday, August 22, to continue negotiations.