Zelenskyy,Macron Discuss Western Troops01/14 06:09

   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he has held further 
discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron about the possibility of 
Western troops deploying in Ukraine to safeguard any peace deal ending the 
nearly three-year war with Russia.

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he 
has held further discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron about the 
possibility of Western troops deploying in Ukraine to safeguard any peace deal 
ending the nearly three-year war with Russia.

   Zelenskyy's disclosure came before an official visit to Kyiv on Tuesday by 
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. He arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced 
visit following a meeting in Warsaw on Monday with his counterparts from 
France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Poland.

   Germany and the four other countries are Europe's five top military spenders.

   Pistorius told German news agency dpa that his visit to Kyiv aims to 
underscore Germany's strong support for Ukraine at a time when U.S. 
President-elect Donald Trump's term beginning next week looks set to bring deep 
changes to Washington's policy on the war.

   Pistorius said that his visit "is a signal that Germany, as the biggest NATO 
country in Europe, stands by Ukraine -- not alone, but with the group of five 
and many other allies."

   Trump has criticized the cost of the war for U.S. taxpayers through major 
military aid packages for Ukraine, and vowed to bring the conflict to a swift 
end. He also has made it clear that he wants to shift more of the Ukraine 
burden onto Europe.

   Macron prompted an outcry from other leaders, and he appeared isolated on 
the European stage, after his remarks almost a year ago floated the possibility 
of putting Western troops in Ukraine.

   Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine needs security guarantees to bolster any 
peace agreement -- an issue he said late Monday that he discussed with the 
French leader.

   "As one of these guarantees, we discussed the French initiative to deploy 
military contingents in Ukraine," Zelenskyy said. "We considered practical 
steps for its implementation, possible expansion and involvement of other 
countries in this process."

   Potentially sending European troops as peacekeepers to Ukraine is fraught 
with risk. Such a move may not deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again in the 
future, which is the fear of Ukrainian officials, and could drag European 
countries into a direct confrontation with Moscow. That, in turn, could pull 
NATO -- including the United States -- into a conflict.

   Russia's bigger army has largely pinned Ukrainian forces on the defensive 
along the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. Ukraine's defenses are 
creaking in the eastern Donetsk region amid a Russian onslaught.

   Ukraine has built up a domestic arsenal of long-range drones and missiles 
that it uses to hit targets on Russian soil far behind the front line. The 
targets are usually infrastructure that supports the Russian war effort, such 
as arms depots, oil refineries and manufacturing plants.

   Two industrial facilities in Russia's western Saratov region were damaged 
after a "massive" Ukrainian drone attack, regional Gov. Roman Busargin said 
Tuesday.

   He claimed that Russian air defenses downed "a large number" of drones and 
said that there were no casualties, offering no further details.