The Kremlin contradicts Trump and maintains the veto on sending European troops to Ukraine

BarcelonaKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has implicitly contradicted the words of the US president in the Oval Office of the White House during his meeting yesterday with French President Emmanuel Macron. Washington's rush to end the war and Vladimir Putin's priorities do not seem to coincide. When asked at his daily press conference about Trump's claims that Russia would be open to the deployment of European peacekeepers in Ukraine, Peskov referred reporters to an earlier statement by Russian authorities saying that such a move would be unacceptable to Moscow.

In his usual informal and equivocal style, and always full of coarse salt, Trump declared on Monday that both he and Putin accepted the idea of deploying European peacekeepers in Ukraine if an agreement was reached to end the war. "Yes, he will accept it," Trump said in the presence of Macron and the television cameras. "I asked him this question specifically. He has no problem with this," he said. These words were in direct contradiction not only with the statement to which Peskov referred, but also with the words of the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, after the meeting with his American counterpart, Marco Rubio, last week in Saudi Arabia. In this regard, Lavrov assured that the deployment of Western contingents in Ukraine would be considered by the Kremlin as a "direct threat" to Russian sovereignty, even if these troops operated under a different flag.

Dmitri Peskov has been on the safe side and has not wanted to publicly contradict Trump, but the reference to the statement is a more than obvious way of strengthening Russia's opposition to this idea. An idea that, from the point of view of Zelensky and Kiev's European allies, is essential to achieve peace.

This is what the Ukrainian president constantly refers to in all his recent interventions as "security guarantees." Guarantees to which Macron referred yesterday in front of Trump, admitting from the start that there could be deployment of European forces on the ground, but always with the support of the United States. On this point, the Republican magnate did not open his mouth, highlighting the great differences that separate the transatlantic partners.

There are so many differences that, while Macron insisted in the press conference with his American counterpart that the possible and desirable peace "cannot be the surrender of Ukraine," the plans of the White House do not seem to be heading in the same direction. For the first time since the invasion, three years ago, yesterday the United States and Russia, together with China, voted together on a resolution of the UN Security Council in which Moscow was not held responsible for the war, and in which only a quick peace was requested, without mentioning the word fair, which would imply Putin's acceptance of responsibility. France and the United Kingdom abstained from voting, although they did not exercise their right of veto as permanent members of the Council.