Western troops in Ukraine would be ‘targets’ for Russian forces: Putin
President Vladimir Putin has rejected proposed Western security guarantees for Ukraine, warning that any foreign troops deployed in the neighbouring country would be a «legitimate target» for Russia’s military.
Putin’s warning on Friday came a day after dozens of nations pledged to send troops to the war-battered country as a security guarantee in the event of a hoped-for peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
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«If some troops appear there, especially now during the fighting, we proceed from the premise that they will be legitimate targets,» Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, an event following closely after the Russian president engaged in a public display of close relations with China and North Korea.
Putin added that the deployment of foreign troops would not be conducive to long-term peace and reiterated his claim that Ukraine’s closer military ties with the West are among the «root causes» of the conflict, which began in February 2022 when Russian forces invaded.
«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,» Putin declared.
«We would recognise it as a threat to ourselves — the presence of international forces, or any foreign forces, or NATO forces on Ukrainian soil, near our border,» he told reporters.
Peskov instead claimed that all needed security guarantees for Ukraine were contained in the provisions of the agreements reached at peace talks in Istanbul in 2022.
Under the Istanbul framework, Ukraine would abandon NATO ambitions and adopt a neutral, nuclear-free status. In exchange, it would receive security assurances from the US, Russia, China, Britain and France.
However, led by France and Britain, the Paris summit proposal said that a «reassurance» force to patrol in Ukraine is necessary to enforce any future deal.
Ukraine and the West point to a long list of infringements of previous agreements by Russia, including between 2014-2022, when Moscow-backed separatists were fighting Kyiv’s army in the east of the country.
Putin’s warning on Friday came a day after dozens of nations pledged to send troops to the war-battered country as a security guarantee in the event of a hoped-for peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
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«If some troops appear there, especially now during the fighting, we proceed from the premise that they will be legitimate targets,» Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, an event following closely after the Russian president engaged in a public display of close relations with China and North Korea.
Putin added that the deployment of foreign troops would not be conducive to long-term peace and reiterated his claim that Ukraine’s closer military ties with the West are among the «root causes» of the conflict, which began in February 2022 when Russian forces invaded.
«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,» Putin declared.
«We would recognise it as a threat to ourselves — the presence of international forces, or any foreign forces, or NATO forces on Ukrainian soil, near our border,» he told reporters.
Peskov instead claimed that all needed security guarantees for Ukraine were contained in the provisions of the agreements reached at peace talks in Istanbul in 2022.
Under the Istanbul framework, Ukraine would abandon NATO ambitions and adopt a neutral, nuclear-free status. In exchange, it would receive security assurances from the US, Russia, China, Britain and France.
However, led by France and Britain, the Paris summit proposal said that a «reassurance» force to patrol in Ukraine is necessary to enforce any future deal.
Ukraine and the West point to a long list of infringements of previous agreements by Russia, including between 2014-2022, when Moscow-backed separatists were fighting Kyiv’s army in the east of the country.
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