The US President Donald Trump has clearly ruled out the deployment of American troops into Ukraine, keeping at bay air-based security guarantees in hopes of cementing the framework of peace in the two-year-old Russia-Ukraine strife. The White House confirmed on Tuesday that Trump “definitively ruled out boots on the ground” but had instructed his national security team to explore other options, which include some kind of air power. Officials noted that the president sees the security guarantees as critical toward ensuring that the peace lasts while also considering cost to the taxpayers.
Without ready direct US funding of the war, Trump has advocated that NATO allies purchase American arms-worth $247 billion in US defense exports in 2023-and then give them to Ukraine to keep Kyiv afloat and provide a fillip to the domestic arms industry.
The decision comes on a highly uneven battlefield. Ukraine remains heavily dependent on Western assistance, and according to Congressional records, the US has already provided $113 billion since 2022 in military and economic aid. Russia, meanwhile, has increased defense spending to 6.5% of GDP in 2024, which accounts for its highest ratio since the Cold War.
Trump took the direct diplomacy further, claiming to have talked “dozens of times” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, besides meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. But as the Administration frames it, its efforts have, in essence, induced Moscow and Kyiv to sit down to this negotiating table “for the first time in years” and now “may even be preparing for a possible leader-to-leader summit.” “Both sides will have to compromise,” Trump said. “But open dialogue is the only path to peace.”
