Western troops in Ukraine are targets — Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that any Western troops sent to Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets for Russian forces. He made the remarks as Kyiv’s allies discuss how to support Ukraine in the long term.

His comments came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that 26 countries had pledged post-war security guarantees for Ukraine, including the possible deployment of international forces on land, sea, and in the air.

Russia has long argued that one of the reasons for its invasion was to stop NATO from admitting Ukraine and stationing forces there.

“Therefore, if some troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for destruction,” Putin told an economic forum in Vladivostok.

“And 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.”

The exchange underlined the gap between Moscow and Kyiv’s allies over what future security arrangements for Ukraine should look like. Ukraine is pushing for firm guarantees from the West to deter any new attack. France and Britain, which co-chair a coalition backing Ukraine, have signalled they are open to sending troops once the war is over.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Washington will not deploy ground troops but could provide support such as air power. Putin said that security arrangements must take into account both Russia and Ukraine.

“I repeat once again, of course, Russia will implement these agreements. But, in any case, no one has discussed this with us at a serious level yet,” he said.

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Trump, who entered office in January promising to end the war quickly, hosted Putin in Alaska last month, but the summit produced no breakthrough.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pushing for a direct meeting with Putin to move toward ending what has become Europe’s deadliest conflict in decades. Putin on Friday dismissed the idea, saying “it will be practically impossible to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian side on key issues.”

Still, he repeated an earlier offer to host Zelenskyy in Moscow.

“I said: I’m ready, please, come, we will definitely provide working conditions and security, a 100% guarantee.
But if they tell us: ‘we want to meet with you, but you have to go somewhere else for this meeting’, it seems to me that these are simply excessive requests on us.”

Zelenskyy, without addressing the idea of meeting in Moscow, said: “We are ready for any kind of meetings. But we don’t feel that Putin is ready to end this war. He can speak but it’s just words, and nobody trusts his words.”

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