Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that any Western forces sent to Ukraine would be a “legitimate” target for Moscow’s military, following Kyiv’s allies’ pledge to deploy troops if a peace deal is reached.“If some troops appear there, especially now during the fighting, we proceed from the premise that they will be legitimate targets,” Putin said at an economic forum in Vladivostok, as cited by AFP.

He also argued that deploying such a force would not promote lasting peace and claimed Ukraine’s growing military ties with the West were among the “root causes” of the conflict.“Can Ukraine’s security guarantees be ensured and provided by foreign, especially European and American, military contingents? Definitely not, they cannot,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by state media, as cited by the BBC. French president Emmanuel Macron had said after Thursday’s summit of Kyiv’s allies that twenty-six countries have promised postwar security guarantees for Ukraine, including an international force on land, sea, and air.Ukraine’s allies have not yet disclosed any details of the plan, such as troop numbers or individual contributions of the countries.Kyiv maintains that security guarantees from Western forces remain crucial to any peace agreement to prevent Russia from launching future offensives. Macron also criticized Russia for continuing to send troops into Ukraine despite efforts to initiate ceasefire talks. In a recent offensive, the Russian military carried out a large-scale coordinated attack on Ukraine, launching more than 500 aerial weapons and concentrating mainly on the Western regions, Kyiv announced on Wednesday. Over three and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin said this week there was “a certain light at the end of the tunnel” and that “there are options for ensuring Ukraine’s security in the event the conflict ends.”The likelihood of a direct meeting between Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has diminished since it was floated last month by US president Donald Trump.Putin suggested zelenskyyy could travel to Moscow for talks, an idea Kyiv dismissed as “unacceptable.” zelenskyyy said the proposal showed Russia had no real intention of holding such a meeting.