Russia has expressed its opposition to the potential deployment of a European contingent in Ukraine in the event of peace being reached with Moscow, stated its top diplomat, as Europeans and Americans consider post-war scenarios.
“We are certainly displeased with the proposals put forward on behalf of representatives from the team of the newly elected (US) president (Donald Trump) to delay Ukraine’s NATO membership by 20 years and to establish a ‘peacekeeping contingent’ comprising ‘British and European forces’ in Ukraine,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the state news agency TASS, as reported by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.
Speculation regarding potential peace talks has circulated for weeks, following nearly three years of war that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries.
Among the ideas being explored by European governments and Washington is the deployment of a European military contingent in Ukraine along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line.
This proposal, reportedly discussed between French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in mid-December, could involve NATO member states or even nuclear-armed countries like France and the UK.
“It is obviously premature to talk (…) about peacekeeping soldiers,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 16 December.
European nations fear a potential disengagement by the United States from the war in Ukraine, or pressure from Washington for an unfavourable agreement for Kyiv, with Donald Trump returning to the White House on 20 January.
The newly elected president has called for an “immediate ceasefire,” claiming he could secure a peace agreement “within 24 hours” but has provided no details of his plan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he wants the delivery of more weapons and security guarantees from Western allies before any negotiations with Moscow.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to demand Ukraine’s capitulation, the renunciation of its NATO aspirations, and insists that Russia retains the Ukrainian territories it has annexed.
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Source: ANA-MPA
