Foreign Troops in Ukraine Would Be 'Legitimate Targets’, Putin Says

Moscow will consider any foreign troop deployment on Ukrainian soil as “legitimate targets for destruction”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

"If any troops appear there, especially now, during the fighting, we assume that they will be legitimate targets for destruction," Putin emphasized in his keynote speech at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

"And if decisions are reached that will lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply see no point in their presence on Ukrainian territory,” he added, Euronews reported.

“If these agreements are reached, no one doubts that Russia will implement them in full,” Putin said.

Putin’s comments came after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accompanied by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, shared on Thursday that 26 European states, part of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, were prepared to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in a post-war capacity following any potential peace settlement.

Ukraine’s European partners have not suggested sending combat troops to Ukraine during the ongoing war, but instead deploying a type of international peacekeepers only after a possible ceasefire or a peace deal.

These forces would not engage in fighting but would only be tasked with monitoring and maintaining peace after the agreement is reached.

The Russian president voiced doubts about this possibility, though, saying it will be “practically impossible” to reach an agreement on key issues with Ukraine to end the war, currently in its fourth year.

Putin also said that Russia wants to get security guarantees as well, without specifying what these measures could be and how they would protect Russia in the war against Ukraine. 

“Peace guarantees must be for both, Russia and Ukraine,” stressed Putin.

Putin also reiterated Moscow’s resolute rejection of Ukrainian membership in the NATO defense alliance. At the same time, the Kremlin is not opposed to Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union, according to him.

He claimed that “Ukraine’s decision on NATO cannot be considered without looking at Russia’s (security) interests”, but Kyiv’s EU aspirations are a “legitimate choice”.

“I repeat, (Ukraine’s EU bid) is Ukraine's legitimate choice, how to build its international relations, how to ensure its interests in the economic sphere, with whom to enter into alliances.”

The members of the so-called Coalition of the Willing said they were prepared to deploy a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country, according to Macron.