Russia rejected the Coalition of the Willing’s plan to put Western peacekeeping troops into Ukraine once the war ends to deter future aggression by the Kremlin, saying those forces would be “legitimate military targets” for Moscow’s forces.
Ukraine had hailed the plan as vital security guarantees for a peace agreement with Russia.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said in a statement on Thursday morning that the “deployment on Ukrainian territory of military units, military facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries will be classified as foreign intervention posing a direct threat to the security not only of Russia, but also of other European countries.”
“All such units and facilities will be regarded as legitimate military targets of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” Zakharova said, originally in Russian. “These warnings have been voiced repeatedly at the highest level and remain relevant.”
She added: “The new militaristic declarations of the so-called coalition of the willing and the Kyiv regime form, in their person, a genuine ‘axis of war’.”
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.Â
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