Trump to Europe: Overseeing a Ukraine cease-fire would be your job
Live MintThe outlines of President-elect Donald Trump’s initial efforts to end the war in Ukraine from his visit to Europe last week are starting to emerge for the first time. At a meeting in Paris on Dec. 7, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron that he doesn’t support Ukrainian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but that he wanted to see a strong, well-armed Ukraine emerge from any cessation of fighting, according to officials briefed on the meeting. Trump said that Europe should play the main role in defending and supporting Ukraine and that he wanted European troops present in Ukraine to monitor a cease-fire, according to the officials. The discussions over placing European troops on the ground in Ukraine are still at an early stage, with several unresolved questions, including which European countries would be involved, the number of troops, Washington’s role in supporting the arrangement and whether Russia would accept a deal involving troops from NATO countries. Any European troops on the ground would be part of a specific peacekeeping or cease-fire monitoring force and wouldn’t be a NATO operation, officials said.