Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the deployment of European troops to Ukraine would amount to war with Russia, according to remarks reported by Russian media on Friday. Putin said European leaders were now discussing how to send troops into Ukrainian territory, and stated plainly that doing so would mean war with Russia.
The warning came after countries in the so-called "coalition of the willing" confirmed they were preparing to place a foreign military contingent in Ukraine once the conflict there ends. The coalition's co-chairs reached that decision following a meeting in Kyiv on August 24.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has separately said that any foreign contingent in Ukraine that interferes with Russia's military operation there would become a legitimate military target for Russian forces.
Putin blames the West for the conflict
Putin also named those he holds responsible for the crisis in Ukraine, saying Western countries provoked it. He described the pressure coming from the West as constant and unrelenting.
The Russian leader repeated Moscow's long-standing position that the eastward expansion of NATO, the Western military alliance formed in 1949, is unacceptable. He also referred back to comments he made in late July, when he said the government in Kyiv had started the war in Ukraine and that Moscow had only responded to fighting begun by the Kyiv authorities with Western backing.
No grounds for conflict with Europe, Putin says
Putin said Moscow has no reason to enter into conflict with Europe, arguing that the relevant questions were already settled by the outcome of the Second World War. He said Russia is not threatening European countries and has no plans to do so, asking rhetorically why it would.
He accused European governments of pushing their own populations toward war with Russia by frightening citizens with what he described as an invented threat from Moscow. He questioned whether European countries wanted to revise the outcome of the Second World War and asked what they were now steering their peoples toward, suggesting it was war with Russia, pointing again to talk in Europe of sending troops into Ukraine.
Putin points to Western 'systemic errors'
Putin argued that the situation now unfolding across Europe is the result of systemic errors made by what he called Western globalists in politics, security and economic policy. He said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, these Western globalists concluded they could act without constraint, and that the mistakes stemming from that assumption have kept piling up like a snowball.
He said Europe's errors in energy policy would lead to even higher gas prices for Europeans, and noted that Russia sells its energy resources at market-based prices.
Kremlin sees no path to improved relations
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said there are currently no grounds for improving relations between Russia and Europe, adding that the political leadership of European Union countries has no intention of moving toward de-escalation.
Putin's latest comments follow a series of public statements in recent weeks on the war in Ukraine and Russia's relations with Western countries, including remarks he made at the Eastern Economic Forum on September 3 and earlier at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.
