Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned that any foreign troops deployed in Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets”, saying their presence would threaten Russia’s security.
Putin said European countries wanted to deploy troops in Ukraine after a peace agreement and added that Moscow would consider them legitimate targets, according to Reuters. “We said from the very beginning that the presence of any foreign troops on Ukrainian territory is absolutely unacceptable for us, because we believe it threatens the security of the Russian Federation,” Putin said during the televised meeting, according to the Kremlin remarks reported by Reuters. Putin made the remarks during a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow.
Referring to the possibility of European forces entering Ukraine after a peace agreement, Putin said, “That after peace is concluded, they will immediately bring troops into Ukraine. We have already said that for us it is a legitimate target, meaning the war will immediately resume. He also said Russia wanted Washington to work with European countries on the wider security arrangements. “I would like the United States to work with Europe so that the Europeans could decide whether they want peace or war,” Putin said.
The meeting was attended by US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, defence minister Andrei Belousov and presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev. What does that mean?