Trump admin insiders aren’t willing to rule out the idea of US troops on the ground in Ukraine.
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff spoke to Fox News‘ Shannon Bream on Sunday as part of a round of press shows after President Donald Trump‘s disastrous summit with Vladimir Putin. Pressed on the lengths that the US was willing to go to support Ukraine, Witkoff said that the US was “prepared to be able to give Article 5 security guarantees.”
Article 5 is a section of the founding treaty of NATO that considers an attack on any member nation to be an attack on all member nations. It has only been invoked once, in response to the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11. The resulting coalition forces were involved in the invasion of Afghanistan.
Ukraine is not a member nation of NATO. Bream asked Witkoff directly if this pseudo-Article 5 invocation would include US “boots on the ground” and a direct conflict with Russia.
“I think part of the discussion that we’re going to have…is exactly the specifics of what the Ukrainians feel that they need,” Witkoff said. “It’s for us to drill down on the granular details of exactly what the Ukrainians need to give them a sense of security in the future… We were fully committed to be there for that purpose.”
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On CNN‘s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper drilled down on Witkoff’s Article 5 comments. Tapper wondered if Russia “would allow that to happen.” Witkoff said that the US could dance around Russia’s hardline stance against Ukrainian NATO membership on a technicality.
“The United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee,” he said.
Watch Witkoff’s interview with Fox News via YouTube:
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