Russia Rejects Deployment Of European Coalition Forces Guarantee Of Security In Ukraine

JAKARTA - Russia responded negatively to European proposals regarding security guarantees for Ukraine. Russia will not accept the presence of NATO troops in its neighboring territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised US President Donald Trump's efforts to end the war in Ukraine as "very important", and said Moscow hoped the effort would continue.

As part of a potential peace settlement, Ukrainian allies in Europe are working on a series of guarantees for Ukraine that will protect it from possible Russian attacks in the future.

However, Peskov said the deployment of European troops in Ukraine would mean NATO's presence there, which he said was something Russia wanted to prevent from the start.

"In fact, initially, the progress of NATO's military infrastructure and the infiltration of military infrastructure into Ukraine may be called one of the root causes of the emerging conflict situation," he said.

"So, we are negative on these discussions," continued Peskov.

All parties, according to him, agreed that security guarantees for Ukraine should be part of every peace deal, but basically disagreed with the form of guarantees.

Russia says it should be one of Ukraine's security guarantors and wants to revive proposals that have been discussed by both sides by 2022, in the early weeks of war.

Kyiv rejected the proposal, saying it would give Moscow an effective veto of military support from outside to Ukraine.

Peskov said security guarantees were "one of the most important topics", but Russia felt there was no need to talk about it openly.

He said the meeting between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had been very substantive, constructive, and useful.

Trump said the United States would not place troops in Ukraine as part of any security guarantees in the future.

However, Trump remains open to other US military engagements, including air support and intelligence.

Peskov said peace negotiators Russia and Ukraine had communicated, but he had not been able to give an exact date when they would meet again.

The two sides last held face-to-face talks in Istanbul on July 23, in a session that lasted only 40 minutes.