French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 nations have pledged to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, which will include force on land, sea and air.
After the summit meeting of Kyiv’s allies, Macron said European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a call with United States President Donald Trump and that U.S. contributions to the guarantees were being finalised in the coming days.
"The day the conflict stops, the security guarantees will be deployed," Macron told a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, standing alongside Zelenskyy.
Trump said that the U.S. backing would “probably” come in the form of air support as Zelenskyy and the U.S. president had already spoken about “maximum protection for Ukraine skies”.
Despite this, hopes for a peace deal have been halted since Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Trump in Alaska last month.
Trump also said the EU should work with the U.S. to slow down imports of Russian oil and gas to half of Russia’s "war machine by economic means".
The 27-member European Union has already set a target to end all gas and oil imports by 2027. Despite this, a White House official stated that Russia received €1.1 billion (US$1.3 billion) in fuel sales from the EU in one year; however, the actual figure is much higher.
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan are also part of the 35-country “coalition of the willing” talks.
In a post to X, Anthony Albanese said, “Australia stands with Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion”.
