American and Ukrainian officials have reportedly been mulling over a plan for American air and satellite surveillance assets to monitor a future Korea-like demilitarized area separating Ukrainian-controlled and Russian-controlled territory within Ukraine’s borders as part of a possible peace plan.
Citing multiple persons familiar with the plan, NBC News reported on Friday that the so-called “buffer zone” would be an as-yet undetermined “large demilitarized area” within Ukraine.
The United States would reportedly “take the lead in watching the buffer zone” because American drone and satellite capabilities give the U.S. a leg up in surveillance matters but the monitoring effort would also involve “other countries” with which the U.S. would coordinate.
Russia has objected to the idea of any European or NATO nations becoming involved in securing any future peace settlement with Kyiv, so the buffer zone proposed would potentially be secured by forces from non-NATO nations such as Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh.
No American ground troops would be involved, and a person told NBC that planners are deliberately avoiding proposing NATO involvement or involvement from any group of countries that could suggest NATO involvement in the plan.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly ruled out using American ground forces in any Ukraine peacekeeping effort but has suggested that American aerial assets could be involved.
Any future agreement would be instead guaranteed by bilateral agreements among Ukraine and allied nations that would give Kyiv security guarantees without risking invocation of the NATO treaty’s Article V mutual defense provision.
French president Emmanuel Macron has previously said that 26 countries had agreed to provide military assistance for Ukraine on land, sea and in the air, while Russian president Vladimir Putin has in response stated that foreign troops stationed in Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russian forces, in a threat to Kyiv’s allies as they discuss security guarantees in the event of a peace deal.
“If some troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for destruction," Putin told an economic forum in Vladivostok.
"And if decisions are reached that lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply do not see any sense in their presence on the territory of Ukraine, full stop."
On Thursday, Trump said that he is unhappy with the destruction and carnage in the Ukraine war and joked that he thought it would be easy to end it.
"Frankly, the Russia one, I thought, would have been on the easier side of the ones I've stopped, but it seems to be something that's a little bit more difficult than some of the others," he said.
"I think we're going to get it all straightened out," he said, on seeking a peace agreement.
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