News - World: US President Donald Trump has ruled out deploying American troops to Ukraine but floated the possibility of providing air support as part of what he described as future security guarantees for the country.

Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Trump emphasized that there would be “no American boots on the ground” if US forces were ever involved in Ukraine.

“When it comes to security, they’re willing to put people on the ground,” he said, referring to European leaders he met at the White House on Monday.

Trump said, “France and Germany, a couple of them, UK – they want to have boots on the ground. We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air, because no one has the kind of stuff we have, really, they don’t.”

The US president also categorically ruled out Ukraine joining the Western military alliance NATO — a plan Russia has long said it will not tolerate.

Trump, however, sidestepped questions about how US air support would secure peace or deter further conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

The US president further said that he called President Vladimir Putin of Russia, “and we're trying to work out a meeting with President Zelensky. We'll see what happens there.”

"If that works out, if it works out, then I'll go to the trilateral and close it up," Trump added, urging Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky “to show some flexibility also.”

Trump and Putin met in Alaska on Friday, during which the Russian leader demanded Ukraine's withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for ending the war, the Guardian reported Saturday, citing two sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

Backed by Western allies, Zelensky has consistently opposed any agreement that involves ceding territory — including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia.

Moscow, however, insists any deal must include Kiev giving up some of the land it has held since 2014.

According to reports, Putin told Trump that in exchange for Donetsk and Luhansk, Russia would halt further advances and freeze the frontline in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Source: Press TV