U.S. backs security guarantees for Ukraine at summit of Kyiv's allies in Paris

The United States for the first time on Tuesday backed a broad coalition of Ukraine’s allies in vowing to provide security guarantees that leaders said would include binding commitments to support the country if Russia attacks again.

PARIS — The United States for the first time on Tuesday backed a broad coalition of Ukraine’s allies in vowing to provide security guarantees that leaders said would include binding commitments to support the country if Russia attacks again.

The pledge came at a summit in Paris of the “coalition of the willing” of mainly European nations to firm up guarantees to reassure Kyiv in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, which invaded its neighbor in 2014 and again at full scale in 2022.

Unlike previous coalition meetings, the summit was also attended by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — President Donald Trump’s son-in-law — as well as America’s top general in Europe, Alexus Grynkewich, who a day earlier fleshed out details of security guarantees with European army chiefs.

Witkoff, who has led talks with Russia, said after the summit that Trump “strongly stands behind security protocols.”

“Those security protocols are meant to ... deter any attacks, any further attacks in Ukraine, and ... if there are any attacks, they’re meant to defend, and they will do both. They are as strong as anyone has ever seen,” he said at a joint news conference with the French, German, British and Ukrainian leaders.