Putin threatens Europe: Troops deployed in Ukraine will be a "legitimate target"

BarcelonaVladimir Putin has again threatened Europe the day after the French president announced progress regarding the future deployment of troops to Ukraine. The Russian president asserted that any Western troops deployed on Ukrainian territory would be a legitimate target for Moscow to attack. Emmanuel Macron asserted this Thursday that 26 countries—mostly European— have agreed to participate in the peacekeeping mission in Ukraine which will be deployed once a ceasefire is in place. "Twenty-six countries have pledged to deploy troops in Ukraine as a guarantee force, or to be present on land, sea, or air," the French president assured after a summit in Paris.

"If troops enter, especially now, during military operations, we assume that they will be legitimate targets for destruction," Putin said at the Vladivostok economic forum. However, Kiev's European partners are not considering sending soldiers to Ukraine while hostilities continue, but only once a possible ceasefire has been established. Putin added that, in the event of an agreement, he does not see any need to deploy foreign troops: "If measures leading to a stable peace are finally agreed upon, I see no point in their presence in Ukraine. End of story."

Ukraine, however, considers certain security guarantees essential to dissuade Moscow from a new offensive in the future. And he sees the deployment of foreign peacekeepers as a possible solution. This Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "thousands" of soldiers could be sent to the country once the war is over. "It's important that we are discussing all of this... it will certainly be thousands, not just a few," he signed after meeting with the President of the European Council, António Costa, in Ukhhorod, western Ukraine.

For now, however, all this discussion amounts to getting ahead of itself, because at the moment it doesn't seem like a ceasefire is imminent, despite the diplomatic rapprochement between the governments of Russia and the United States, which is acting as mediator.

This Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Donald Trump could meet again soon, after doing so for the first time in the US president's second term. last month in Alaska"I have no doubt that if the presidents deem it necessary, their meeting can be organized very quickly, as was the case with the one in Alaska," Peskov said in an interview with the Russian outlet Argumenty and Fakty. He said this after Trump said on Thursday that he would speak with Putin soon.

Putin once again challenges Zelensky to go to Moscow

What doesn't seem so likely is a meeting between Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Russian president reiterated today his offer to host his Ukrainian counterpart in Moscow for peace talks, as he said earlier this week. He assured that they have offered Kiev "working and security conditions, a 100 percent guarantee." However, if they are asked to move the meeting elsewhere, they would consider it "excessive requests." For his part, Zelensky asserted that Ukraine is prepared "for any type of meeting," but that he does not believe "Putin is ready to end this war."

After the summit in Alaska, Donald Trump predicted a meeting between Putin and Zelensky in the short term—in the next two weeks, he said—although Moscow was quick to dampen these expectations. This week, the US president reiterated that he is "very disappointed" with Putin, a message he has expressed on other occasions, although for the moment he has not accompanied it with punitive actions. "We will do something to help people live," he said in an interview on Wednesday, though he did not give any details of what kind of actions might be.

Putin is already enjoying dragging out the situation, as his troops are slowly advancing on the battlefield. This Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the army has taken control of Markovo, a town about 16 kilometers from Kramatorsk, one of the main Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region, near Sloviansk. It also announced the capture of Fedorivka, about 30 kilometers from these two key cities.