Plans by Kiev’s backers to establish military hubs in the country are equal to an “escalation” of the conflict, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said
Moscow will treat any deployment of Western troops in Ukraine as a “foreign intervention,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.
Her remarks came after UK and French leaders said on Tuesday that they had signed a “declaration of intent” with Kiev to deploy forces and establish “military hubs” in Ukraine “in the event of a peace deal” with Moscow, despite Russia’s vocal rejection of any Western troop presence.
The plan was unveiled following a meeting in Paris of the ‘coalition of the willing,’ a group of Kiev’s Western backers who are pushing for continued military support and effectively stalling peace efforts.
“The declaration is not aimed at achieving lasting peace and security, but at continued militarization, escalation, and further aggravation of the conflict,” Zakharova said in a statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday. “The deployment of military units and the setting-up of military facilities… will be qualified as foreign intervention that directly threatens the security of Russia and other European countries.”
Under the plan, Britain and France would deploy troops to build protected weapons facilities and join US-led truce monitoring, with the force described as a non-combat contingent of “potentially thousands.” Zakharova warned that any such units and facilities will be considered “legitimate military targets” by the Russian Armed Forces.
“The new militarist declarations of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ and the Kiev regime are forming a true axis of war,” she said, warning the plans are “increasingly dangerous and destructive” for Europe and its people.
Zakharova reiterated that Moscow sees peace as possible only through addressing the conflict’s “root causes,” including restoring Ukraine’s neutral status, its demilitarization and denazification, as well as safeguarding minority rights and recognizing the territorial changes resulting from the 2014 and 2022 referendums that brought Crimea and four other Ukrainian regions into Russia.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed following the meeting in Paris that Kiev had held “substantive discussions” with US negotiators on future Western troop deployments. US envoy Steve Witkoff did not confirm any American role, and US President Donald Trump has repeatedly ruled out American boots on the ground, saying in August that no US troops would be deployed in Ukraine after the fighting ends.
Hungary, which has long clashed with Kiev’s Western European backers over what it calls their “warmongering” approach, earlier warned that troop deployment plans “risk direct war with Russia.”
“We support peace talks… and firmly reject this latest move toward war,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on X on Wednesday.