Lithuanian president: Ukraine needs real security guarantees, including US support

VILNIUS - Ukraine needs real security guarantees, including reassurance forces with US support, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has said.

"International pressure must increase due to Russia's refusal to stop the killings. Military support is vital for Ukraine to gain leverage in negotiations. Ukraine needs real security guarantees, including reassurance forces with US support and own military strength," he said in an X post after a video call of the Coalition of the Willing held on Sunday to discuss steps to end the war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump has said that Washington is prepared to provide Ukraine security guarantees.

White House envoy Steve Witkoff also said on Sunday that Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed to "robust security guarantees" for Ukraine during a meeting in Alaska on Friday.

Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after the Kremlin ordered the invasion, had been one of Trump's core demands before the Alaska summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.

But after the meeting yielded no breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine - a move that would appear to favor Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due in Washington on Monday for talks with Trump.

Zelensky is expected to first meet one-on-one with Trump, before they are joined by European leaders, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, a European government source said.