Western troops in Ukraine would be ‘targets’ for Russian forces: Putin

Moscow hits out at plan by Kyiv’s allies to send forces as a security guarantee following any peace deal.

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.

A summit of the “coalition of the willing” on Thursday saw 26 states agree to provide forces to deter Russia from further aggression should President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker that peace succeed. However, the commitment of the United States, viewed as essential to any such security arrangement, remains uncertain.

“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.