NATO Troops In Ukraine ‘Legitimate Targets’ Even If There For Peace Deal: Putin

French president Emmanuel Macron had on Thursday hosted a ‘coalition of the willing’ on Ukraine in Paris, involving 26 nations which have declared readiness to get directly engaged in providing security guarantees for a post-war order.

The plan will reportedly be finalized with US approval, as American forces are sought to ‘backstop’ the plan, including possibly by air. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated in Friday comments that any Western troops in Ukraine would become legitimate targets, even in the scenario of enforcing a peace deal.

Speaking before the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin described that “The West’s dragging of Ukraine into NATO was one of the causes of the conflict. If any troops show up now, while the hostilities are ongoing, we would consider them legitimate military targets,” according to state media translation.

“If decisions are made that result in long-term peace, then I simply see no sense in such a presence,” he clarified further. “Nobody should doubt that Russia would implement the agreed terms fully. We will respect security guarantees that both Russia and Ukraine need to be offered.”

Putin additionally complained that despite all of these Western meetings and talk of security guarantees, none of these things have been directly discussed with Moscow – which remains an essential if there’s hope of ending the war.

The Kremlin’s position is certainly nothing new, and so it seems as usual that the two sides are talking past each other. Some analysts read it as the more hawkish Europeans putting up yet more obstacles to peace. One such example is featured in The Guardian as follows:

Finland’s president Alexander Stubb said president Donald Trump in a call with European leaders on Thursday suggested the US and Europe should act together on further sanctions against Russia, and that sanctions on oil and gas were up for discussion.

“Trump’s approach was very much that we must act together on sanctions policy and now look for ways in particular to halt Russia’s war machine by economic means,” Stubb told Finnish media after the meeting, Reuters reported. “In that case there are two targets, namely oil and gas. The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and President Trump’s close advisers will discuss this over the next 24 hours,” Stubb said.

All of this underscores the need of the Europeans and Washington to get on the same page if they hope to enact any of this, or also achieve ceasefire and deescalate the proxy war nature of the conflict.

“Without the participation of the USA, all the talk of the ‘coalition of the willing’ will remain words on paper,” a Russian analyst, Sergey Poletaev, editor of the Vatfor project, has stated.