A recent claim by US President Donald Trump that Russia President Vladimir Putin is willing to accept European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine has been rejected by Kremlin, marking Moscow’s opposition to Trump’s push for an early end to the war.
During his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump alleged that Putin didn’t have a problem with having European troops in Ukraine and peace could be ensured “within weeks.” But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov disputed it, quoting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s previous statement that European forces in Ukraine would be “unacceptable.”
In spite of Moscow-Washington high-level negotiations in Riyadh just recently, Russia is standing pat on its opposition to foreign troops in Ukraine. The Kremlin maintains that dealing with the “root causes” of the war Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO and its government’s anti-Russian policy is a necessity before any settlement.
Putin has stressed that Russia will not agree to a ceasefire that might enable Ukraine to rearm. He is still determined to limit Kyiv’s military capacity, prevent foreign weapons, and retain Russian control over Ukraine’s political destiny. Moreover, Moscow insists on having complete control over four Ukrainian territories it annexed in 2022.
Although Ukraine has shown a readiness to negotiate territorial concessions, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won’t sign on to any deal without European guarantees of security. The Kremlin refusal to accept peacekeepers makes life harder for Trump’s diplomatic game, and doubts arise about the Washington leverage in Putin’s move.
At the same time, Russia pursues its military campaign, confident that battlefield victories will fortify its bargaining position. According to reports, Russian soldiers have taken the biggest territory they have occupied since December, bolstering Moscow’s confidence that time is on its side in the war.