Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about statements by President Donald Trump on Feb. 24, to the effect that Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him that he was okay with the idea of having European “peacekeeping” troops in Ukraine as part of a negotiated agreement. Peskov refrained from publicly contradicting the U.S. President, but he effectively reaffirmed Russia’s opposition to the idea, by referring to earlier comments to that effect by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Reuters quoted Peskov as saying: “There is a position on this matter that was expressed by the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. I have nothing to add to this and nothing to comment on. I leave this without comment,” said Peskov.
Lavrov had explained, during a Feb. 18 press conference following the U.S.-Russia meeting in Riyadh, that the presence of European troops in Ukraine, under NATO or any other flag “a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation and our sovereignty. Considering this, the troops from NATO countries [in Ukraine] under a foreign flag—an EU flag, or any national flags—does not change anything in this regard. This is unacceptable.”
