Putin says Russia would consider foreign troops deployed in Ukraine "legitimate targets"
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine, particularly while his country's full-scale invasion is still ongoing, would be considered "legitimate targets" by Moscow's forces. Putin's comments came hours after European leaders repledged their commitment to provide a potential peacekeeping force as part of security guarantees for Ukraine if and when a ceasefire is agreed.
Moscow has repeatedly described the prospect of Western forces deploying to Ukraine, even after the fighting ends, "unacceptable."
"If any troops appear there, especially now while fighting is ongoing, we assume that they will be legitimate targets," the Russian leader said during a panel discussion at the Eastern Economic Forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.
Putin dismissed on Friday the idea that any peacekeeping forces would be required in Ukraine to monitor a final peace deal, saying "no one should doubt" that Moscow would comply with a treaty to halt its 3½-year full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Putin denied flatly for months any intention of launching his invasion in 2022, despite the Biden administration accusing him of making clear plans for it.
He said Friday that security guarantees would be needed for both Russia and Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later said Moscow would need "legally binding documents" to outline such agreements. "Of course, you can't just take anybody's word for something," he told Russian news outlet Argumenty i Fakty.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that thousands of Western troops could potentially be deployed as part of security guarantees with a deal to end the war.
"It will definitely not be single digits, but in the thousands. And that is a fact, but it is still a little too early to talk about it," Zelenskyy said at a press conference in western Ukraine, with European Council President Antonio Costa, according to the AFP news agency.
Putin and Zelenskyy's comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that 26 of Ukraine's allies had pledged to deploy troops as a "reassurance force" for Ukraine when the fighting ends.
Macron spoke after a meeting in Paris of the so-called coalition of the willing, a group of 35 countries that support Ukraine. He said that 26 of the countries had committed to deploying troops to Ukraine — or to maintaining a presence on land, at sea or in the air — to help guarantee the country's security the day after any ceasefire or peace is achieved.
Addressing the participants of the international economic conference the Ambrosetti Forum on Friday, Zelenskyy said it was important that security guarantees "start working now, during the war, and not only after it ends."
He said he could not disclose more details as they were "sensitive and relate to the military sphere."
Russian troops attacked Ukraine overnight with 157 strike and decoy drones, as well as seven missiles of various types, Ukraine's air force reported Friday. Air defenses shot down or jammed 121 of the drones, it said.
One attack damaged multiple residential buildings in Dnipro in central Ukraine, regional administration head Serhii Lysak wrote on social media. The regional administration also said that an unspecified "facility" had been set alight in the strike, but did not give further details.
Lysak shared photos of residential buildings with damaged roofs, glass shards lying on the ground and people carrying wooden boards to cover broken windows. "Private homes were damaged. Windows in apartment buildings were shattered," he wrote.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine's Chernihiv region north of Kyiv, Russian drones attacked infrastructure in the Novhorod-Siversk district, leaving at least 15 settlements without electricity, local authorities reported.
Russian troops destroyed 92 Ukrainian drones overnight, meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday. Local social media channels in the city of Ryazan, approximately 125 miles southeast of Moscow, reported that the city's state-owned Rosneft oil refinery had been targeted. They shared videos that appeared to show a fire against the night sky.
Local Gov. Pavel Malkov said that drone debris had fallen on an "industrial enterprise" but did not give further details, instead warning residents not to post images of air defenses on social media.