Top officers from the United States and Europe held talks this week to develop military options as part of efforts to broker an end to the devastating war in Ukraine, the US military said Thursday.
US General Dan Caine and his counterparts from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and Ukraine met Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, a spokesperson for the US Joint Staff said in a statement.
"They developed military options to support negotiations to bring a lasting peace to Europe," which "will be presented to each nation's respective national security advisors for appropriate consideration in ongoing diplomatic efforts," the statement said.
It did not provide details on what those options might entail, but the meeting came as a group of allies led by Britain and France are putting together a military coalition to support security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression against Ukraine.
On the first day of the talks in Washington this week, a US defense official told AFP that the military leaders would discuss "best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal."
US President Donald Trump is trying to end Moscow's three-and-a-half-year full-scale invasion of its neighbor through talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin.
But while Trump has upended a years-long Western policy of isolating the Russian leader, he has made little concrete progress toward a peace deal so far, and Zelensky has insisted that security guarantees be agreed to before he meets Putin.
Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of showing no interest in "long-term" peace and of seeking security guarantees completely incompatible with Moscow's demands.
AFP
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