Trump offers assurances that US troops will not be sent to help defend Ukraine

President Donald Trump has offered his assurances that US troops would not be sent to help defend Ukraine against Russia after seeming to leave open the possibility the day before.

Mr Trump also said in a morning TV interview that Ukraine’s hopes of joining Nato and regaining the Crimean Peninsula from Russia are “impossible”.

The Republican president, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders held hours of talks at the White House on Monday aimed at bringing an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

While answering questions from journalists, Mr Trump did not rule out sending US troops to participate in a European-led effort to defend Ukraine as part of security guarantees sought by Mr Zelensky.

Mr Trump said after his meeting in Alaska last week with Vladimir Putin that the Russian leader was open to the idea of security guarantees for Ukraine.

But asked on Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends what assurances he could provide going forward and beyond his term that American troops would not be part of defending Ukraine’s border, Mr Trump said: “Well, you have my assurance, and I’m president.”

Mr Trump would have no control over the US military after his terms ends in January 2029.

Speaking later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “US boots will not be on the ground” as part of any potential peacekeeping mission.

The president also said in the interview that he is optimistic that a deal can be reached to end the Russian invasion, but he underscored that Ukraine will have to set aside its hope of getting back Crimea, which was seized by Russian forces in 2014, and its long-held aspirations of joining the Nato military alliance.

“Both of those things are impossible,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Putin, as part of any potential deal to pull his forces out of Ukraine, is looking for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as recognition of Crimea as Russian territory.

Mr Trump said on Monday that he was arranging for direct talks between Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky.

But the Kremlin has not yet said whether Mr Putin, who has resisted previous calls by Mr Trump and others for direct negotiations on ending the war, is committed to a face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian leader.

Asked whether Mr Putin had promised Trump that he would meet directly with the Ukrainian leader, Ms Leavitt responded affirmatively. “He has,” she said of Mr Putin.

Mr Trump, early on Monday during talks with Mr Zelensky and European leaders, said that he was pressing for three-way talks among Mr Zelensky, Mr Putin and himself.

But after speaking to Mr Putin later in the day, Mr Trump said that he was arranging first for a face-to-face between Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin and that three-way talks would follow if necessary.

“It was an idea that evolved in the course of the president’s conversations with both President Putin, President Zelensky and the European leaders yesterday,” Ms Leavitt said.

But when discussing a phone call held after the meeting between Mr Trump and the Russian leader, Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov gave no indication that either a bilateral or a trilateral meeting with Ukraine had been agreed.

Mr Trump said he believed Mr Putin’s course of action would become clear in the coming weeks.

“I think Putin is tired of it,” Mr Trump said.

“I think they’re all tired of it. But you never know. We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks. That I can tell you.”

Later on Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham told The Associated Press in a phone interview that if peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are not “moving in the right direction” by the time Congress returns next month, then “Plan B needs to kick in”.

For months, the Republican senator has been pressing Mr Trump to support a bipartisan sanctions bill that would impose steep tariffs on countries helping fund Russia’s war.

On Tuesday morning, following a phone call with Mr Trump, Mr Graham signalled the president may now be willing to back the effort.

“Trump believes that if Putin doesn’t do his part, that he’s going to have to crush his economy. Because you got to mean what you say,” Mr Graham told reporters in South Carolina earlier on Tuesday.