BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO defense chiefs held a “candid discussion” Wednesday about what security guarantees they could offer Kyiv to help forge a peace agreement that ends Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine, a senior alliance official said.
Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, said that 32 defense chiefs from across the alliance held a video conference amid a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the fighting.
He said there was a “great, candid discussion” in the call. “I thanked everyone for their always proactive participation in these meetings: we are united, and that unity was truly tangible today, as always,” he wrote on social platform X without providing further details.
Assurances that it won’t be invaded again in the future are one of the keys for getting Ukraine to sign up for a peace deal with Russia. It wants Western help for its military, including weapons and training, to shore up its defenses, and Western officials are scrambling to figure out what commitments they might offer.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov chided efforts to work on security arrangements in Ukraine without Moscow’s involvement.
“We cannot agree with the fact that it is now proposed to resolve collective security issues without the Russian Federation. This will not work,” Lavrov said Wednesday, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
Russia will “ensure (its) legitimate interests firmly and harshly,” Lavrov added at a news conference in Moscow with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi.
U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe, took part in the virtual talks, Dragone said. U.S. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was also due to participate, a U.S. defense official said.
Caine also met with European military chiefs Tuesday evening in Washington to assess the best military options for political leaders, according to the defense official, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Defense chiefs work on details of a Ukraine security force
U.S. President Donald Trump met last Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and on Monday hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and prominent European leaders at the White House. Neither meeting delivered concrete progress.
Trump is trying to steer Putin and Zelenskyy toward a settlement…