On Tuesday morning, Aug. 19, U.S. President Donald Trump was invited to an interview on Fox and Friends, where he was peppered with questions about his whirlwind of diplomatic activity over the previous 24 hours and the Ukraine peace process overall. When asked about the so-called Article 5 security guarantees for Ukraine, especially given the fact that Ukraine won’t be allowed to join NATO, Trump cut the interviewer off: “No, no. So, they’re not going to be a part of NATO, but we’ve got the European nations and they’ll front-load it… France, Germany, U.K.—they want to have boots on the ground. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest with you,” he said. “We’re willing to help them,” he remarked later.
Trump went on: “There will be some form of security. It can’t be NATO, because that’s just not something that would ever, ever happen. They couldn’t do that. Who would want that? I mean, if you were Russia, who would want to have your enemy—your opponent—sitting on your line? You don’t do that. So, it was always thought that Ukraine was sort of a buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe. And it was, it was a big wide buffer until Biden got involved.”
The President promised that the U.S. will not put boots on the ground as part of this process. “You have my assurance,” Trump said.
