On January 8, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned Moscow would consider any move to deploy Western troops in Ukraine as a form of "external intervention".
The statement was made after British and French leaders said on January 7 that they had signed a "declaration of intention" with Kiev on deploying forces and establishing "military centers" in Ukraine "in case of reaching a peace agreement" with Russia, despite Moscow repeatedly protesting the presence of Western troops.
This plan was announced after the Paris meeting of the "voluntary alliance". Accordingly, Britain and France will send troops to Ukraine to build protected weapons storage facilities and participate in the US-led ceasefire monitoring mechanism. This force is described as non-combat, with a scale of "up to thousands of people".
This plan is not aimed at achieving long-term peace and security, but towards further militarization, escalation and exacerbating the conflict" - Ms. Zakharova said in a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Ms. Zakharova emphasized that all such units and facilities will be considered "legitimate military targets" by the Russian Armed Forces, and warned that these plans are "increasingly dangerous and destructive" for even Europe.
The spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry also reaffirmed that Moscow only considers peace feasible when resolving "the root causes" of the conflict, including restoring Ukraine's neutral status, demilitarization, ensuring the rights of minority groups, as well as recognizing territorial changes arising from the 2014 and 2022 referendums.
After a meeting in Paris on January 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Kiev had "substantial" discussions with US negotiators about the possibility of deploying Western troops in the future.
However, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff did not confirm Washington's role, while Mr. Trump repeatedly ruled out the possibility of sending US troops to Ukraine, affirming in August that there would be no US troops present here after the fighting ended.
Hungary - a country that has long disagreed with Kiev's Western European partners about what Budapest calls a "violent" approach - previously warned that military deployment plans risk leading to direct war with Russia.
We support peace talks and resolutely oppose this latest move towards war," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on social network X on January 8.
