Any European troop contingents deployed to Ukraine would be considered by Moscow as legitimate military targets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday.
In wide-ranging remarks published by the state news agency TASS, Lavrov also accused Europe of “preparing for war” with Russia and said that European leaders are “blinded” by ambitions of defeating Moscow.
The belligerent rhetoric from Russia’s top diplomat came ahead of high-stakes talks between President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Sunday to “finalize” the details of a 20-point peace plan developed by US and Ukrainian officials.
Ahead of the meeting, Moscow cast doubt on the deal’s prospects, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accusing Ukraine of trying to “torpedo” the talks and saying that the current plans are “radically different” to those negotiated between Russia and the US.
“The European ‘war party,’ having invested its political capital in the idea of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia, is ready to go all the way,” Lavrov claimed on Sunday.
“The deployment of military contingents to Ukraine in the format of a ‘coalition of the willing’... We have stated a hundred times that in this case, they will become a legitimate target for our armed forces,” he continued.
Lavrov praised Trump’s role in negotiations and said that Russia was “committed” to continuing its work with the US to find a settlement, but accused Kyiv of obstructing the effort to strike a peace deal.
“In turn, almost all of Europe – with a few exceptions – is pumping the regime with money and weapons, dreaming of the collapse of the Russian economy under the pressure of sanctions,” he said.
“Since the change of administration in the United States, Europe and the European Union have become the main obstacle to peace. They are making no secret of their plans to prepare for war with Russia.”