Fox News host Brit Hume gave the president a reality check, as he reminded Donald Trump that his hopes of deploying peacekeeping troops to Ukraine have again been rejected by Russia.
Trump was in a buoyant mood following his White House summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders, claiming breakthroughs had been made, and barely hiding his excitement at the prospect of setting up a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin, and Zelensky.
But there were also huge questions over possible security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump floated the idea of a coalition of foreign troops being deployed to the region to deter further Russian aggression—an idea explicitly rejected by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte told Fox News, “We have not discussed that at all today,” when asked about deploying foreign troops. “That will be part of the discussions, which will now start. We will try to bring them to the next stage of understanding over the coming days and weeks, of course.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying, “We reaffirm our repeatedly stated position of categorical rejection of any scenarios that envisage the appearance in Ukraine of a military contingent with NATO countries, which is fraught with an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences.”
Discussing the summit on Monday’s Special Report, Fox’s top political analyst Brit Hume warned the president not to be so hasty in his remarks.
“We also had a response from Russia today to the idea of some kind of a NATO-like peacekeeping force with European nations in Ukraine,” said Hume. “And they say they explicitly reject that and always have.
He added, “I think it suggests that the path toward a final deal here may be some considerable ways off, as much as the president, who always likes to have things done quickly, as we hear him say, would like this to happen on a fast track.”
The Russian snub raises further questions as to what sort of concessions Trump extracted from President Vladimir Putin during his Saturday summit, which special envoy Steve Witkoff said at the time included the “game-changing” admission that “the United States could offer Article 5-like protection,” to the region, “which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO.”
Meanwhile, Russia responded to the European summit by launching a massive drone strike on Ukraine, attacking the city of Kremenchuk with 270 drones and 10 missiles during an overnight attack, which the city’s mayor claimed was a sign the Russian president had no intention of making a peace deal.
“At the very same time when Putin was assuring Trump over the phone that he seeks peace, and when President Volodymyr Zelensky was holding talks at the White House with European leaders about a just peace, Putin’s army launched yet another massive attack on Kremenchuk,” Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi said in a statement on Telegram.
“Once again, the world has seen that Putin does not want peace—he wants to destroy Ukraine.”
A further meeting of European leaders is set to take place on Tuesday, which Zelensky confirmed will include discussions regarding security guarantees.
“Today, we continue coordination at the level of leaders. There will be discussions, and we are preparing the relevant formats. We will also continue working tomorrow. National security advisers are also in constant contact now. There will be security guarantees,” he said.
