By Laurence Norman and Noemie Bisserbe
The United Kingdom and France will set up military hubs across Ukraine and build protected facilities to produce weapons and military equipment for the country if a cease-fire agreement is reached between Kyiv and Russia, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday.
The commitments -- which offer some of the clearest details so far of the security guarantees Western allies will offer Ukraine -- come as the U.S. continues its push for an end to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.
On Tuesday, leaders and senior officials from Europe, the U.S. and other partners met in Paris to discuss two of the issues at the heart of peace talks: security guarantees to protect Ukraine from a future Russian attack and a U.S.-led economic package to help Kyiv recover from the war.
European leaders and their allies in Canada, Australia and elsewhere committed to taking part in U.S.-led monitoring and verification of a cease-fire, as well as long-term commitments to Ukraine's military and legally binding pledges to support Ukraine in the face of a future Russian attack.
A separate Anglo-French agreement with Ukraine spelled out additional help those countries would provide Kyiv following a cease-fire. While Britain and France have said they were prepared to form the core of a reassurance force in Ukraine after the war, the specifics around that support hadn't previously been set out.
Russia has opposed the presence of North Atlantic Treaty Organization country forces in Ukraine after the war, although President Trump and senior U.S. officials have said they are confident they can persuade the Kremlin to agree.
The U.S. role to backstop the European security guarantees is still to be fully set out but diplomats have said it would include logistical support, technology to monitor the cease-fire and additional military help, including possibly U.S. air power, if Russia resumed the fighting.
In recent days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country still needed greater clarity about how the security guarantees would work in the event of a future Russian invasion. Washington has committed to send to Congress the U.S. backstop to the security guarantees, something Zelensky has pressed for.
On Tuesday, Zelensky called the latest work on security guarantees "good steps forward" but said Kyiv hoped to see the pledges converted into formal documents backed by Western parliaments. "It's still not enough," he said.
Speaking alongside Zelensky and British and German leaders, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said he thought Ukraine's partners "are largely finished with security protocols" to give Kyiv assurances.
"The president strongly, strongly stands behind security protocols," Witkoff said. "Those security protocols are meant to A, deter any attacks, any further attacks in Ukraine and B, if there are any attacks, they are meant to defend. And they will do both. The president does not back down from his commitments."
Witkoff also said Ukraine, the U.S. and other partners were "very, very close to finishing up" robust economic support for postwar Ukraine.
The meetings Tuesday, which also included Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, come during fresh turbulence in the trans-Atlantic relationship amid concerns about Washington's talk about taking over Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. European leaders brushed aside questions on the issue.
Zelensky and Witkoff said work still needs to be done to line up the U.S., European and Ukrainian teams on the peace terms they want to put to Russia. Both said there still needs to be discussion on what territory Kyiv will need to cede as part of a peace deal, which is by far the most controversial aspect of an agreement.
Russia is demanding Ukraine cede well-fortified territory in its eastern Donbas region that Kyiv still controls.
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com and Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 06, 2026 15:22 ET (20:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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