BarcelonaVladimir Putin has threatened Europe the day after the French President announced advances in the future to send troops to Ukraine. Russian President has stated that any Western troop deployed in Ukrainian territory would be a legitimate goal for Moscow to attack it. Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that 26 countries – most of the European – have agreed to participate in the peace mission in Ukraine, which will be deployed when there is a ceasefire. “26 countries have pledged to deploy, as a guarantee force, troops in Ukraine, or be present by land, sea or air,” said the French head of state after a summit held in Paris.
“If troops, especially now, during military operations, we start from the fact that they will be legitimate objectives of destruction,” said Putin from the Vladivostok Economic Forum. However, Kíiv’s European partners do not plan to send soldiers to Ukraine as hostilities continue, but only once a fire has been implemented. Putin added that, in the case of an agreement, there is no need to deploy foreign troops: “If measures are finally agreed to lead to a stable peace, I see no sense in its presence in Ukraine.
Ukraine, however, is indispensable that there are certain guarantees of security to deter Moscow of a new offensive in the future. And he sees the deployment of foreign peace troops as a possible solution. This Friday, Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski, said that “thousands” of soldiers could be sent to the country after the end of the war. “It is important that we are discussing all this … without a doubt they will be thousands, not only a few,” he said after meeting with the President of the European Council, António Costa, in Újhorod, west of Ukraine.
For the moment, however, all of this discussion is to advance to events, because at the moment it does not seem that the scene of a ceasefire must be imminent, despite the diplomatic approach between the governments of Russia and the United States, which acts as a mediator.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that Putin and Donald Trump could meet again soon, after they were for the first time in this second term of the US President’s term last month in Alaska. “I have no doubt that if the presidents consider it necessary, their meeting can be organized very quickly, as with Alaska’s,” Peskov said in an interview with the Russian Ambmenty and Fakty medium. He said that after Trump said on Thursday he would talk to Putin soon.
Putin again challenges Zelenski to go to Moscow
What does not seem so likely is a meeting of putin and voodimir Zelenski. The Russian President has reiterated today the offer to house his Ukrainian counterpart in Moscow to have peace conversations, as he said earlier this week. He assured that they had offered Kíiv “working and safety conditions, a 100%guarantee”. But if they ask them to move the meeting elsewhere, they would consider it “excessive requests”. Zelenski, meanwhile, said that Ukraine is ready “for any kind of meetings” but does not think “Putin is ready to end this war.”
Following a summit in Alaska, Donald Trump predicted a meeting between Putin and Zelenski in the short term – in the following two weeks, he said – although Moscow rushed to cool those expectations. This week, the US President has again repeated that he is “very disappointed” with Putin, a message he has said at other times, although he has not been accompanied by punitive actions at the moment. “We will do something to help people live,” he said on Wednesday in an interview, although he did not give any details what kinds of actions could be.
Putin is good to extend the situation, as his troops, in the meantime, move slowly to the battlefield. On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the army has taken control of Markovo, a town about 16 kilometers from Kramatorsk, one of the main Ukrainian bastions in the Donetsk region, along with Sloviansk. He has also announced the capture of Fedorivka, about 30 kilometers from these two key cities.
