steps here as far as Europe is concerned securing a peace deal and what has been the reaction

there in London and beyond about that scene yesterday at the White House.

So, Willie, on this side of the Atlantic, the race is really on to figure out what those

security guarantees would look like in reality. President Macron of France, Prime Minister

Kier Starrmer of the UK this morning

hosted a video conference of the so-called Coalition of the Willing. These are the European

allies who are prepared to put their own troops on the ground in Ukraine to try to offer

Zelensky the security guarantees that he needs. There is going to be a meeting of European Union leaders later on today to try to build on what I think is seen as sort of cautious progress at the White House yesterday.

But these European leaders will he really have a delicate needle to thread here.

They need to come up with a formula for security guarantees

that are strong enough to give Zelensky and Ukraine the confidence that they can agree to a peace

deal without fear that the Russians will just attack again. And at the same time, these security

guarantees can't be so strong that they alienate President Trump, alienate the more

isolationist wing of his MAGA movement. So we are starting to see the sort of broad outlines

of what these security guarantees could look like. Some of these European countries, led by

Britain and France, saying they are prepared to put their own troops on the ground in Ukraine,

not on the front line,

not in a way that is designed to provoke Russia, but in a way that is designed to deter future

Russian aggression.

But the reality is the Europeans are still dependent on the United States for a number of

capabilities that they don't have themselves, things in terms of missile defense,

in terms of intelligence, overhead satellites, some form of air support.

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