Europe will have to bear "the lion's share of the burden" for Ukraine's security, US Vice President JD Vance said as Washington pushes for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Vance was asked on Fox News Wednesday night about security guarantees for Ukraine and the extent of Europe's involvement, subjects raised during a flurry of high-level summits held over the past week to seek an end to the war.
"Well, I don't think we should carry the burden here," Vance said. "It's their continent. It's their security, and the president's been very clear; they're going to have to step up here."
Vance also said that, while Washington would help end the withering conflict, European nations must lead on security arrangements.
He did not give specific details.
"The United States is open to having the conversation, but we are not going to make commitments until we figure out what's going to be necessary to stop the war in the first place," he said.
'Bluff and pray'
European NATO leaders must not be naive when discussing a Ukraine peace force but face up to the reality that they would need to deploy tens of thousands of troops to the country for the long term, the head of Germany's soldiers' union said.
US President Donald Trump has ruled out sending US troops to Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have both spoken in favour of troop deployments in a post-war settlement as part of a coalition of the willing, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also signalling openness to German participation.
"It won't be enough to have a handful of generals and smaller military units man a command post in Ukraine," Colonel Andre Wuestner, whose organisation represents more than 200,000 active and retired soldiers, told Reuters.
A "bluff and pray" approach would be downright negligent and increase the risk of an escalation, the colonel warned.
He estimated that each of the big countries in the coalition of the willing, such as Britain, France and Germany, would need to deploy at least 10,000 troops to Ukraine for the long run, posing a huge challenge to their already stretched and under-equipped forces.
"The Europeans remain military dwarves and are already struggling to meet the new NATO commitments they made at the last summit," Wuestner said.
"Europe is still a long way from being able to defend itself independently."
Therefore, there was an urgent need to finally speed up armament and strengthen the European pillar of NATO.
