PARIS (Dispatches) - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that any Western troops deployed to Ukraine would be a “legitimate” target for Moscow’s army, a day after Kyiv’s Western allies said they had committed to a troop presence in the event of a peace deal.
“If some troops appear there, especially now during the fighting, we proceed from the premise that they will be legitimate targets,” Putin said at an economic forum in the far east city of Vladivostok.
He added that the deployment of a Western force was not conducive to long term peace.
Russia rejected the notion of Western security guarantees for Ukraine on Friday, after more than two dozen countries pledged to join a “reassurance” force to deploy in the wartorn country after any eventual peace deal with Moscow.
A force to deter Russia from again attacking its neighbor is a key pillar of the security backstop a coalition of mainly European countries want to offer to Ukraine if the war ends via a peace deal or a ceasefire.
The extent of any U.S. involvement remains uncertain, even after European leaders spoke to President Donald Trump via video conference following the Paris summit at which the “coalition of the willing” pledged its force.
But on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of Western security guarantees for Ukraine, saying that “foreign, especially European and American” troops “definitely cannot” provide such assurances to Kyiv.
The Paris summit was hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and attended by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, while others, like British premier Keir Starmer, participated remotely.
The meeting represented a new push led by Macron to show that Europe can act independently of the United States after Trump launched direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The United States was represented by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who also met with Zelensky separately.
Trump said after his call with European leaders that he would speak to Putin soon, with Peskov confirming Friday that such a call could be organized swiftly.
Europe has been under pressure to step up its response over three and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“We have today 26 countries who have formally committed — some others have not yet taken a position — to deploy as a ‘reassurance force’ troops in Ukraine, or be present on the ground, in the sea, or in the air,” Macron told reporters, standing alongside Zelensky.
Zelensky hailed the move: “I think that today, for the first time in a long time, this is the first such serious concrete step.”
The troops would not be deployed “on the front line” but aim to “prevent any new major aggression,” the French president said.
Macron added that another major pillar was a “regeneration” of the Ukrainian army so that it can “not just resist a new attack but dissuade Russia from a new aggression.”
Macron said the United States was being “very clear” about its willingness to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine.
However, the US contribution remains unclear.
There are also divisions within the coalition, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urging more pressure but remaining cautious about the scope of involvement.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry said that the U.S. recent approval of the sale of 3,350 air-launched Extended-Range Attack Munitions system missiles to Ukraine runs counter to its claimed willingness to resolve the conflict in Ukraine by diplomatic means.