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No U.S. Peacekeeping Forces On The Ground In Ukraine, Air Support Possible: Trump
Trump left the door open to supplying airborne capabilities, especially those unique to the U.S., to keep Russia in check after a peace deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ruled out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine to take part in any post-war peacekeeping effort. However, he said America could instead provide some unspecified type of aerial support. His statement clarifies remarks he made Monday during a White House press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he seemingly left the option for a ground presence open.

“You have my assurance — and I’m president. I’m just trying to stop people from being killed,” Trump told Fox & Friends Tuesday morning when asked what assurances he would give that “it won’t be American boots on the ground defending that border.”
The president added that the onus would be on European allies to deploy ground troops stationed to prevent further Russian attacks.

“When it comes to security, they’re willing to put people on the ground,” Trump explained. “We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air, because nobody has the kind of stuff we have.”
Trump did not elaborate on what he meant by that statement, and was not pushed on the issue by the hosts. We reached out to the White House for clarification, which deferred us to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Tuesday afternoon press briefing. She declined to rule out the U.S. providing combat aircraft as part of any peacekeeping effort.

“Look, that was something the president mentioned on his interview this morning,” she explained. “It is an option and a possibility. I won’t certainly rule out anything as far as military options that the president has at his disposal. I’ll let him do that. I can’t tell you he’s definitely ruled out boots on the ground.”
The concept of providing some kind of air support for Ukraine is not new. Early in the war, Ukraine requested that NATO impose a “no-fly zone” over its airspace. That request was quickly denied, given the likelihood that flying combat aircraft over an active conflict zone could quickly turn into NATO aircraft exchanging fire with Russian forces.

“We are not part of this conflict, and we have a responsibility to ensure it does not escalate and spread beyond Ukraine,” then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in March 2022 after a request by Zelensky. “We understand the desperation but we also believe that if we did that [a no-fly zone] we would end up with something that could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe involving much more countries and much more suffering.”

A no-fly zone over Ukraine would explicitly require the willingness to shoot down intruding Russian aircraft, as well as be prepared to take action against ground-based air defense threats aimed at its planes. This, in turn, would run a very real risk of sparking a much larger conflict with Russia.

The likelihood of the U.S. being willing to take part in a no-fly zone during open conflict, leading to the possibility of having to shoot down Russian aircraft or strike its forces on the ground, is almost assuredly nil. But during a time of peace, even a tense one, protecting Ukrainian airspace is an option. An air policing mission is primarily a peacetime effort that provides surveillance as well as fighter aircraft that can rapidly respond to possible airspace violations and other contingencies. The U.S. has long taken part in such missions in Europe, adjacent to Ukraine, but not over it.
Earlier this year, officials in the U.K. reportedly suggested they were prepared to deploy Typhoon fighters to support a future air policing mission over Ukraine. The Times of London cited a “senior government source” as saying that an “air policing” mission for Ukraine would make sense, although also warning that it would need significant numbers of aircraft, as well as ground-based air defense systems to protect the jets on the ground.
Still, the nature of any such response would depend on a host of operational considerations, but it could extend to engaging an aircraft if it was determined to be undertaking a hostile action.

Protecting the skies over Ukraine would involve a round-the-clock, multi-national presence on a relatively large scale. The Ukrainian front is very large and the situation would remain extremely tense. Even a single mistake or rogue action could set off a dangerous chain of events, pitting NATO and Russian assets against each other in a kinetic exchange. It would be more costly and resource-intensive than the kinds of short-term peacetime deployments the U.S. Air Force currently makes for NATO air policing missions. This operation could last many years, as well.

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