Zelensky open to Western troops providing security for end to war in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine —  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that he’s open to the potential deployment of Western troops in his country to guarantee its security as part of a broad effort to end the almost three-year war with Russia.

The deployment would be a step toward Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Zelensky said in a post on his Telegram channel.

“But before that, we must have a clear understanding of when Ukraine will be in the European Union and when Ukraine will be in NATO,” he said.

His proposals tread a delicate diplomatic path amid international efforts to find a way of ending Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II at a time when Russia has gained an upper hand in the fighting.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he is seeking to facilitate a cease-fire and met with Zelensky in Paris on Saturday. But Zelensky said Monday that he would approach outgoing President Biden about Ukraine’s possible NATO membership because he’s still in office, while Trump doesn’t yet have “legal rights” to decide on the matter.

“He wants to have a cease-fire,” Trump said of Zelensky in comments to the New York Post published Sunday. “He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are taking heavy losses in Ukraine, Trump noted. “I’m formulating a concept of how to end that ridiculous war,” he said.

The possibilities of Ukraine joining the 32-nation NATO military alliance and of Western troops being stationed on its soil have been deeply divisive and contentious issues since Russia’s full-scale invasion began Feb. 24, 2022.

At their summit in Washington in July, NATO declared Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to membership, but stopped short of inviting the country in. The United States and Germany have balked at Ukraine joining NATO while it is at war with Russia.

One obstacle has been the view that Ukraine’s borders would need to be clearly demarcated before it could join so that there can be no mistaking where the alliance’s pact of mutual defense would come into effect. Russia’s invading army occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron floated the idea of Western troops on the ground in Ukraine in February. But it raised the same fears of escalation that have led Western leaders to place limits on weapons supplies and permissions for their use.

European military heavyweights Germany and Poland immediately said they wouldn’t send troops to Ukraine. Macron declined to provide details about which nations were considering sending troops, saying he preferred to maintain some “strategic ambiguity.”

Ukraine’s forces are weathering a months-long onslaught by Russia centered on the Donetsk region in the east, where defenses are creaking.

Zelensky said on X that over the last week alone, Russia launched nearly 500 powerful guided bombs, more than 400 attack drones and almost 20 missiles of various types against Ukraine.

“Ukraine wants this war to end more than anyone else. No doubt, a diplomatic resolution would save lives. We do seek it,” he said.

Zelensky thanked Biden for the latest U.S. military aid of nearly $1 billion. With doubts about whether Trump will keep up U.S. military support, the Biden administration has been trying to spend every dollar remaining from a massive foreign aid bill passed this year to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s challenger in the upcoming German election, Friedrich Merz, said that there’s a “basic consensus” in Germany on continuing to provide military aid to Ukraine.

But during a visit to Kyiv, he also highlighted differences with Scholz, who has refused to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine as he says that everything must be done to prevent a wider war between the West and Russia. Merz has been open to providing them and allowing Ukraine to hit military targets inside Russia.

As he met Zelensky, Merz noted that France, the U.K. and the U.S. have a different position from the current German government.

“Our position is clear, as is that of my parliamentary group: We want to put your army in a position to reach military bases in Russia — not the civilian population, not the infrastructure, but the military targets from which your country is being fought,” he said.

“With this range restriction, we are forcing your country to fight with one hand behind its back, and that is not our position,” he added.

Merz’s center-right Union bloc leads German opinion polls. The election is expected on Feb. 23.