The two-week deadline that President Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine ended Thursday, with Russia showing no signs of stopping the violence as Western leaders pushed for additional security guarantees for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron by phone Thursday following a Paris meeting on the so-called \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d<\/a> to support Ukraine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Zelenskyy described the call as a \u201clong, detailed conversation about how to push the situation towards peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe most important thing is pressure, using strong measures, including economic ones, to force an end to the war. The key to peace is depriving the Russian war machine of money and resources,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that Putin has failed again to heed the U.S. president\u2019s deadlines for peace talks<\/a>, a Ukrainian official told Military Times that the \u201ctime is now\u201d to extend economic pressure<\/a> on Russia and China, which has boosted Russia\u2019s defense industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the Russian economy remains \u201cpropped up, then the U.S. steals a chance for transformation in Russia that could be viewed as a sort of USSR collapse 2.0,\u201d the official told Military Times, referring to the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which was due in large part to economic pressure from the West, led by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia is currently investing 40% of its state budget in defense, according to NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters Thursday that Western pressure is critical \u201cto make sure that when talks start, the Ukrainian president knows that he has the full backing of the U.S., of Canada, the Europeans \u2014 all of us in NATO, but also other countries outside NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s not be na\u00efve about Russia. We know what Putin tries to do, and the evidence is there in Ukraine as we speak,\u201d Rutte said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overnight, Russia fired 112 strike and decoy drones across Ukraine, according to Ukraine\u2019s Air Force. Kyiv\u2019s air defenses intercepted or jammed 84 of the drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Putin told reporters while in Beijing on Wednesday that he is willing to meet with Zelenskyy, but only in Moscow, a non-starter for the Ukrainian president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier Thursday, Macron announced that 26 of Ukraine\u2019s allies had pledged to deploy troops in Ukraine\u2019s land, sea or airspace as a \u201creassurance force\u201d for the war-torn country once fighting ends in the conflict with Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who lead the group, have insisted that any European \u201creassurance\u201d force in Ukraine needs the backing of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ukrainian official, speaking to Military Times on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic efforts, worried that boots on the ground would be an expensive security guarantee with untested results.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\u2018Coalition of the willing\u2019 promises troops for Ukraine after peace deal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n