LONDON, August 18. /TASS/. The Coalition of the Willing has reiterated its readiness to send a "reassurance force" to Ukraine as soon as hostilities are ceased.

"They re-emphasised the readiness to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased, and to help secure Ukraine’s skies and seas and regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces," according to a statement issued by the UK Prime Minister’s office after the coalition’s virtual meeting on Sunday that was co-chaired by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

"The Leaders reaffirmed their continued support to Ukraine" and "commended President Trump’s commitment to providing security guarantees to Ukraine, in which the Coalition of the Willing will play a vital role through the Multinational Force Ukraine, among other measures," the statement says.

According to the statement, "the President and Prime Minister also informed leaders that they would travel to Washington DC tomorrow for a meeting with President Trump" along with Vladimir Zelensky. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also said they will take part in the meeting.

Notably, in its August 13 statement, the Coalition of the Willing emphasized that peace talks on Ukraine "can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or a lasting and significant cessation of hostilities." However, their August 17 statement doesn’t use the word "ceasefire." The BBC said earlier that this could be anticipated in view of Trump’s changed position. During a phone call with the European leaders on August 16, Trump said that he best way to end the conflict in Ukraine is to reach a peace agreement, not merely a ceasefire, which is often violated.

Trump said earlier that if his talks with Zelensky in Washington on August 18 are successful, he will plan another meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He did not say whether it would be a trilateral meeting. According to the Axios portal, Trump hopes to hold a three-party summit meeting with Russia and Ukraine on August 22.

On August 15, a meeting between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump took place at a military base in Alaska. The rendezvous lasted about three hours: there was a one-on-one discussion in the American leader's limousine on the way to the main venue for the talks and a narrow "three-on-three" meeting. The Russian side was also represented by Presidential aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the American side was represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff.

In a statement to the press following the talks, Putin said that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict was the main topic of the summit. The Russian leader also called for turning the page in bilateral relations and returning to cooperation, and invited Trump to Moscow. For his part, the US president announced the progress made in the talks, but noted that the parties had not managed to reach agreement.