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BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders have praised President Donald Trump for agreeing to allow vital U.S. backup for a force they are mustering to police any future peace in Ukraine — a move that vastly improves the chances of an operation that could prove essential for the country’s security.

The leaders said Trump offered American backing for the European “reassurance force” during a call they held with him ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The effectiveness of the operation, drawn up by the so-called “coalition of the willing” — around 30 countries supporting Ukraine — hinges on U.S. backup with airpower or other military equipment that European armed forces do not have, or only have in short supply.

EU leaders regularly have underlined how the United States is “crucial” to the success of the security operation dubbed Multinational Force Ukraine. But the Trump administration has long refused to commit, perhaps keeping its participation on hold as leverage in talks with Russia.

After a meeting Wednesday between Trump and European leaders, European Council President Antonio Costa welcomed “the readiness of the United States to share with Europe the efforts to reinforce security conditions once we obtain a durable and just peace for Ukraine.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had insisted NATO must not be part of these security guarantees, but the U.S. leader agreed “the United States and all the (other) parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification,” Macron said.

Trump did not publicly confirm he would allow U.S. backup, and no details of possible U.S. support were made public. But U.S. Vice President JD Vance sat in on the coalition meeting for the first time.

Multinational Force Ukraine

More than 200 military planners have worked for months on ways to ensure a future peace should the war, now in its fourth year, finally halt. Ukraine’s armed forces also have been involved, and British personnel have led reconnaissance work inside Ukraine.

The exact size of the force has not been made public, although Britain has said it could number 10,000 to 30,000 troops. It must be enough to deter Russian forces, but also of a realistic size for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War and are now rearming.

The mission “will be to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses on the land, at sea, and in the air because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are the best deterrent against future Russian aggression,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told lawmakers last month. Western trainers will work with Ukrainian troops.

“It will secure Ukraine’s skies by using aircraft,” Healey said, “and it will support safer seas by bolstering the Black Sea Task Force with additional specialist teams.”

Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey launched that naval force a year ago to deal with mines in Black Sea waters.

The force initially will have its headquarters in Paris before moving to London next year. A coordination headquarters in Kyiv will be involved once hostilities cease and it deploys.

Senior Russian officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea of European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to North Korea in July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin was “not particularly interested” in the prospect of a peacekeeping force, Russian state media reported.

“We do not take seriously any of the various fantasies promoted by politicians who want to try and shine on the international stage,” Lavrov said, seemingly referring to Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, both force backers.

The impact of US participation

European efforts to set up the force have been seen as a first test of the continent’s willingness to defend itself and its interests, given Trump administration warnings that Europe must take care of its own security and that of Ukraine in future.

Still, U.S. forces clearly provide a deterrent that the Europeans cannot muster.

Details of what the U.S. might contribute were unknown, and Trump has changed his mind in the past, so it remains to be seen whether this signal will be enough to persuade more countries within the coalition to provide troops.

Greece has publicly rejected doing so. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last month that those discussions were “somewhat divisive” and distracted from the goal of ending the war as soon as possible.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Rome won’t contribute troops, but she previously has underlined the importance of working with the U.S. on ending the conflict and called for the participation of an American delegation in force coordination meetings.

NATO membership would be Ukraine’s best security guarantee, but the Trump administration took that possibility off the table in February. Putin is deeply opposed to Ukraine joining the world’s biggest military alliance, and some allies fear it might drag NATO into a broader war with nuclear armed Russia.

___

European Security Correspondent Emma Burrows in London and AP writer Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders have praised President Donald Trump for agreeing to allow vital U.S. backup for a force they are mustering to police any future peace in Ukraine — a move that vastly improves the chances of an operation that could prove essential for the country’s security.

The leaders said Trump offered American backing for the European “reassurance force” during a call they held with him ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The effectiveness of the operation, drawn up by the so-called “coalition of the willing” — around 30 countries supporting Ukraine — hinges on U.S. backup with airpower or other military equipment that European armed forces do not have, or only have in short supply.

EU leaders regularly have underlined how the United States is “crucial” to the success of the security operation dubbed Multinational Force Ukraine. But the Trump administration has long refused to commit, perhaps keeping its participation on hold as leverage in talks with Russia.

After a meeting Wednesday between Trump and European leaders, European Council President Antonio Costa welcomed “the readiness of the United States to share with Europe the efforts to reinforce security conditions once we obtain a durable and just peace for Ukraine.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had insisted NATO must not be part of these security guarantees, but the U.S. leader agreed “the United States and all the (other) parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification,” Macron said.

Trump did not publicly confirm he would allow U.S. backup, and no details of possible U.S. support were made public. But U.S. Vice President JD Vance sat in on the coalition meeting for the first time.

Multinational Force Ukraine

More than 200 military planners have worked for months on ways to ensure a future peace should the war, now in its fourth year, finally halt. Ukraine’s armed forces also have been involved, and British personnel have led reconnaissance work inside Ukraine.

The exact size of the force has not been made public, although Britain has said it could number 10,000 to 30,000 troops. It must be enough to deter Russian forces, but also of a realistic size for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War and are now rearming.

The mission “will be to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses on the land, at sea, and in the air because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are the best deterrent against future Russian aggression,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told lawmakers last month. Western trainers will work with Ukrainian troops.

“It will secure Ukraine’s skies by using aircraft,” Healey said, “and it will support safer seas by bolstering the Black Sea Task Force with additional specialist teams.”

Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey launched that naval force a year ago to deal with mines in Black Sea waters.

The force initially will have its headquarters in Paris before moving to London next year. A coordination headquarters in Kyiv will be involved once hostilities cease and it deploys.

Senior Russian officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea of European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to North Korea in July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin was “not particularly interested” in the prospect of a peacekeeping force, Russian state media reported.

“We do not take seriously any of the various fantasies promoted by politicians who want to try and shine on the international stage,” Lavrov said, seemingly referring to Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, both force backers.

The impact of US participation

European efforts to set up the force have been seen as a first test of the continent’s willingness to defend itself and its interests, given Trump administration warnings that Europe must take care of its own security and that of Ukraine in future.

Still, U.S. forces clearly provide a deterrent that the Europeans cannot muster.

Details of what the U.S. might contribute were unknown, and Trump has changed his mind in the past, so it remains to be seen whether this signal will be enough to persuade more countries within the coalition to provide troops.

Greece has publicly rejected doing so. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last month that those discussions were “somewhat divisive” and distracted from the goal of ending the war as soon as possible.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Rome won’t contribute troops, but she previously has underlined the importance of working with the U.S. on ending the conflict and called for the participation of an American delegation in force coordination meetings.

NATO membership would be Ukraine’s best security guarantee, but the Trump administration took that possibility off the table in February. Putin is deeply opposed to Ukraine joining the world’s biggest military alliance, and some allies fear it might drag NATO into a broader war with nuclear armed Russia.

___

European Security Correspondent Emma Burrows in London and AP writer Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders have praised President Donald Trump for agreeing to allow vital U.S. backup for a force they are mustering to police any future peace in Ukraine — a move that vastly improves the chances of an operation that could prove essential for the country’s security.

The leaders said Trump offered American backing for the European “reassurance force” during a call they held with him ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The effectiveness of the operation, drawn up by the so-called “coalition of the willing” — around 30 countries supporting Ukraine — hinges on U.S. backup with airpower or other military equipment that European armed forces do not have, or only have in short supply.

EU leaders regularly have underlined how the United States is “crucial” to the success of the security operation dubbed Multinational Force Ukraine. But the Trump administration has long refused to commit, perhaps keeping its participation on hold as leverage in talks with Russia.

After a meeting Wednesday between Trump and European leaders, European Council President Antonio Costa welcomed “the readiness of the United States to share with Europe the efforts to reinforce security conditions once we obtain a durable and just peace for Ukraine.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had insisted NATO must not be part of these security guarantees, but the U.S. leader agreed “the United States and all the (other) parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification,” Macron said.

Trump did not publicly confirm he would allow U.S. backup, and no details of possible U.S. support were made public. But U.S. Vice President JD Vance sat in on the coalition meeting for the first time.

Multinational Force Ukraine

More than 200 military planners have worked for months on ways to ensure a future peace should the war, now in its fourth year, finally halt. Ukraine’s armed forces also have been involved, and British personnel have led reconnaissance work inside Ukraine.

The exact size of the force has not been made public, although Britain has said it could number 10,000 to 30,000 troops. It must be enough to deter Russian forces, but also of a realistic size for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War and are now rearming.

The mission “will be to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses on the land, at sea, and in the air because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are the best deterrent against future Russian aggression,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told lawmakers last month. Western trainers will work with Ukrainian troops.

“It will secure Ukraine’s skies by using aircraft,” Healey said, “and it will support safer seas by bolstering the Black Sea Task Force with additional specialist teams.”

Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey launched that naval force a year ago to deal with mines in Black Sea waters.

The force initially will have its headquarters in Paris before moving to London next year. A coordination headquarters in Kyiv will be involved once hostilities cease and it deploys.

Senior Russian officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea of European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to North Korea in July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin was “not particularly interested” in the prospect of a peacekeeping force, Russian state media reported.

“We do not take seriously any of the various fantasies promoted by politicians who want to try and shine on the international stage,” Lavrov said, seemingly referring to Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, both force backers.

The impact of US participation

European efforts to set up the force have been seen as a first test of the continent’s willingness to defend itself and its interests, given Trump administration warnings that Europe must take care of its own security and that of Ukraine in future.

Still, U.S. forces clearly provide a deterrent that the Europeans cannot muster.

Details of what the U.S. might contribute were unknown, and Trump has changed his mind in the past, so it remains to be seen whether this signal will be enough to persuade more countries within the coalition to provide troops.

Greece has publicly rejected doing so. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last month that those discussions were “somewhat divisive” and distracted from the goal of ending the war as soon as possible.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Rome won’t contribute troops, but she previously has underlined the importance of working with the U.S. on ending the conflict and called for the participation of an American delegation in force coordination meetings.

NATO membership would be Ukraine’s best security guarantee, but the Trump administration took that possibility off the table in February. Putin is deeply opposed to Ukraine joining the world’s biggest military alliance, and some allies fear it might drag NATO into a broader war with nuclear armed Russia.

___

European Security Correspondent Emma Burrows in London and AP writer Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders have praised President Donald Trump for agreeing to allow vital U.S. backup for a force they are mustering to police any future peace in Ukraine — a move that vastly improves the chances of an operation that could prove essential for the country’s security.

The leaders said Trump offered American backing for the European “reassurance force” during a call they held with him ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The effectiveness of the operation, drawn up by the so-called “coalition of the willing” — around 30 countries supporting Ukraine — hinges on U.S. backup with airpower or other military equipment that European armed forces do not have, or only have in short supply.

EU leaders regularly have underlined how the United States is “crucial” to the success of the security operation dubbed Multinational Force Ukraine. But the Trump administration has long refused to commit, perhaps keeping its participation on hold as leverage in talks with Russia.

After a meeting Wednesday between Trump and European leaders, European Council President Antonio Costa welcomed “the readiness of the United States to share with Europe the efforts to reinforce security conditions once we obtain a durable and just peace for Ukraine.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had insisted NATO must not be part of these security guarantees, but the U.S. leader agreed “the United States and all the (other) parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification,” Macron said.

Trump did not publicly confirm he would allow U.S. backup, and no details of possible U.S. support were made public. But U.S. Vice President JD Vance sat in on the coalition meeting for the first time.

Multinational Force Ukraine

More than 200 military planners have worked for months on ways to ensure a future peace should the war, now in its fourth year, finally halt. Ukraine’s armed forces also have been involved, and British personnel have led reconnaissance work inside Ukraine.

The exact size of the force has not been made public, although Britain has said it could number 10,000 to 30,000 troops. It must be enough to deter Russian forces, but also of a realistic size for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War and are now rearming.

The mission “will be to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses on the land, at sea, and in the air because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are the best deterrent against future Russian aggression,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told lawmakers last month. Western trainers will work with Ukrainian troops.

“It will secure Ukraine’s skies by using aircraft,” Healey said, “and it will support safer seas by bolstering the Black Sea Task Force with additional specialist teams.”

Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey launched that naval force a year ago to deal with mines in Black Sea waters.

The force initially will have its headquarters in Paris before moving to London next year. A coordination headquarters in Kyiv will be involved once hostilities cease and it deploys.

Senior Russian officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea of European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to North Korea in July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin was “not particularly interested” in the prospect of a peacekeeping force, Russian state media reported.

“We do not take seriously any of the various fantasies promoted by politicians who want to try and shine on the international stage,” Lavrov said, seemingly referring to Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, both force backers.

The impact of US participation

European efforts to set up the force have been seen as a first test of the continent’s willingness to defend itself and its interests, given Trump administration warnings that Europe must take care of its own security and that of Ukraine in future.

Still, U.S. forces clearly provide a deterrent that the Europeans cannot muster.

Details of what the U.S. might contribute were unknown, and Trump has changed his mind in the past, so it remains to be seen whether this signal will be enough to persuade more countries within the coalition to provide troops.

Greece has publicly rejected doing so. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last month that those discussions were “somewhat divisive” and distracted from the goal of ending the war as soon as possible.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Rome won’t contribute troops, but she previously has underlined the importance of working with the U.S. on ending the conflict and called for the participation of an American delegation in force coordination meetings.

NATO membership would be Ukraine’s best security guarantee, but the Trump administration took that possibility off the table in February. Putin is deeply opposed to Ukraine joining the world’s biggest military alliance, and some allies fear it might drag NATO into a broader war with nuclear armed Russia.

___

European Security Correspondent Emma Burrows in London and AP writer Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Wednesday that he plans to approve tenders to build more than 3,000 housing units in the highly controversial E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank, saying the move “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.”

He said Thursday that the plan is backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The project has been frozen for decades amid fierce opposition from the international community, who fear the new settlement neighborhood would prevent the establishment of a contiguous, viable Palestinian state.

“Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” Smotrich said in his statement on Wednesday.

“After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem. This is Zionism at its best — building, settling, and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel,” said Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry responsible for the West Bank civilian issues.

The potential construction of a new neighborhood for the Ma’ale Adumim settlement in the so-called E1 zone has long been cause for alarm in the international community. It would divide the West Bank into northern and southern regions and prevent the development of a Palestinian metropolis that connects East Jerusalem to Bethlehem and Ramallah, which the Palestinians have long hoped would serve as the foundation of their future state.

Smotrich said in a speech on Thursday that Netanyahu supports his move. “He backs me up in everything concerning Judea and Samaria, and is letting me create the revolution,” Smotrich said at an event in Ma’ale Adumim organized by the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization representing local authorities in settlements.

Israelis settlers and right wing activists participate in a march in the area known as E1 close to the Israeli West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in protest at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to block construction there, February 13, 2014. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Smotrich, who holds a junior ministerial position within the Defense Ministry that gives him significant influence over settlement construction, said the approvals for the long-frozen E1 settlement project are a response to a wave of Western countries that have announced or floated plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations next month.

“Today, anyone in the world who tries to recognize a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground,” he declared. “Today, we are writing a historic chapter in the story of the redemption of the people of Israel in their land.”

Smotrich boasted that “after 20 years of delays… the traffic jam has been broken [and] the E1 plan is underway,” adding that the government is “fulfilling the promise and connecting Ma’ale Adumim with a strategic, security and demographic connection, which ensures our united capital for generations.”

Thanking US President Trump and Ambassador Mike Huckabee for their backing, Smotrich said that they are “men of truth with a clear and distinct moral voice that is not confused by the hypocrisy of the West.”

Trump and Huckabee understand “that a Palestinian state would endanger the existence of Israel” and that the West Bank is “an inseparable part of our land, the one that God promised to our father Abraham and gave to us thousands of years ago,” Smotrich said.

View of neighborhoods in the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, near Jerusalem, on June 28, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Trump and Huckabee did not appear to have commented specifically on Smotrich’s E1 announcement. Netanyahu likewise has remained mum on the step.

Smotrich appealed to the prime minister to “apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, to forever remove from the agenda the idea of dividing the land and to ensure that by September the hypocritical leaders in Europe will have nothing to recognize.”

According to the Peace Now settlement watchdog, the approved plans are not for the original E1 proposal, but rather a separate neighborhood of Ma’ale Adumim.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem on August 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“The 3,300 housing units in Ma’ale Adumim represent an increase of about 33% in the settlement’s housing stock — an enormous expansion for a settlement whose population has been stagnant at around 38,000 for the past decade and has experienced net out-migration. The tenders are for a large neighborhood that will connect Ma’ale Adumim’s built-up area with the industrial zone to its east,” Peace Now said.

In a statement, Israel Gantz, chair of Yesha, applauded the measure as “another great and historical achievement for the settlement on the eve of the application of sovereignty,” thanking Smotrich and Netanyahu.

Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach said that the “Palestinians sought to create a chokehold through illegal construction, and building the neighborhood will defeat their goal.”

In March, the security cabinet approved the construction of the “Fabric of Life” Palestinian-only bypass road in the Jerusalem area in a bid to separate Israeli and Palestinian traffic and entrench Israel’s presence beyond the Green Line.

Hailing that move, the Prime Minister’s Office said at the time that it would reduce congestion on the road between the capital and Ma’ale Adumim and boost Israeli construction in E1.

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TEL AVIV — Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets every week to protest the ongoing war in Gaza and the government’s failure to bring home Israeli hostages.

But on Tuesday, a different kind of demonstration took place: hundreds of retired Israeli Air Force pilots rallied against the waroutside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

It was the first time the group, which calls itself “555,” had gathered in person to oppose the Israeli cabinet’s latest decision — to launch an operation to capture Gaza City and expand the nearly two-year war. The crowd, most over 60 years of age, stood under a banner reading “Don’t kill hostages and soldiers” — a message that echoed throughout the speeches.

Many also stressed that their call to end the war wasn’t only about Israeli lives, but about the deaths of Palestinian civilians as well.

Among them was Dan Halutz, a former chief of staff of the Israeli military and ex-Air Force commander. Challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas still poses a significant threat, Halutz told the crowd, “Who among the senior commanders in the IDF believes Hamas is a strategic threat we can’t defend against? I don’t believe there’s such a person.”

Turning to Israel’s current chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, Halutz added that “the war has run its course. Gaza is destroyed — structurally and humanly. There’s no army there. The last Hamas operatives are hiding.”

Halutz also addressed Netanyahu directly, saying that if the prime minister had listened to President Joe Biden and ended the war a year and a half ago, “things would look different today.” The former commander accused the government of lacking the legitimacy to wage a war that “most of the public opposes.” He added that “the war in Gaza is eroding our morals, our values as human beings and as Jews. We will lose the right to send soldiers into battle if we don’t bring home those we already sent.”

Hagai Katz, one of Israel’s most decorated fighter pilots and part of the 1981 air strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor, was also there to oppose the campaign to capture Gaza City. He told NPR that he rejected Netanyahu’s promise that the move would eliminate Hamas once and for all.

“We got promises from Netanyahu almost two years ago that only military pressure will eventually be effective. We heard it again and again,” said Katz. “That’s what we heard when he went into Rafah. That’s what he said when we moved to Khan Yunis. And now again, the same story about Gaza — but we believe we’ll get to the same outcome now, with more dead hostages and probably soldiers and Palestinians.”

When asked what he would say to Israeli pilots now striking Gaza from the air, Katz acknowledged the moral dilemma they face.

“That’s a very tough question because in today’s war, unlike 50 years ago, you don’t see the target. You get an accurate position or a picture, and you trust the system to check that there are not too many innocent bystanders around. On the other hand, realistically, we know that a lot of uninvolved people are getting killed. So they have a real dilemma: stop attacking or quit reserves — and in that, in some cases, quit protecting Israel — or keep going and kill innocent bystanders. It’s a major issue on the table.”

Would he fight in Gaza if he were still serving?

“Probably I wouldn’t,” he answered. “And if that means I would have to leave the service, I would’ve done that.”

The pilots’ protest adds to a recent petition by former heads of Israel’s security services calling for the war to end. Polls show a large majority of Israelis support ending the Gaza war in exchange for the hostages’ release. Yet the cabinet’s approval to launch a campaign to take control of Gaza City has drawn warnings from the current military chief, Israel media reported, who says such an operation could endanger the lives of the estimated 20 surviving hostages in Gaza.

So far, the army has not issued call-up orders for reserve soldiers to bolster mission. But the public debate — both in Israel and abroad — over whether the operation is legitimate is only expected to intensify as universities said they were planning to go on strike this coming Sunday.

Emily Feng contributed from Tel Aviv.