Moscow, Feb 4 (.) Russia has warned against the deployment of any NATO troops in Ukraine, calling it both an unacceptable and confrontational action, and further stressing that any troops on ground will be treated as legitimate enemy targets.
Highlighting comments made by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte who had called for the deployment of the bloc’s forces in Kyiv, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said: “This is categorically unacceptable for us.”
Reiterating Moscow’s long-held position on the deployment of any foreign troops in Ukraine, the spokesperson noted “Russia has repeatedly made clear that the presence of Western troops on Ukrainian soil, under any flag, threatens our security. We will treat these troops as legitimate military targets.”
Calling the transatlantic military bloc’s move an “unrestrained expansion” of its “geopolitical space” right up to Russia’s doorstep, she recalled that one of the principle reasons for the beginning of the four-year-long destructive conflict was NATO’s expansion until Ukraine, a step the Kremlin ruled repeatedly as unacceptable, and detrimental to its security.
“Without eliminating this, its resolution is impossible,” Zakharova said, adding “Russia will seek to resolve this issue through military or political means,” and noted that Moscow had proposed “various options” to end the conflict, though one way or the other, nothing seemed to materialise on table resulting in the war dragging on.
. . PRS