LOS ANGELES (OC).–Speaking at an economic forum in Vladivostok, Russian President Vladimir Putin said foreign troops on Ukrainian soil in a security force capacity would threaten Russian National Security. Putin has been complaining for a sometime about NATO encroachment on the Russian Federation, something that was expressly prohibited after the 1991 end of the Soviet Union. “We would recognize it as a threat to ourselves—the presentation of international forces, or any foreign forces or any NATO force on Ukrainian soil, near our border,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on the sidelines of the economic forum. “If any armed forces appear there—especially now during the fighting—then we assume they are legitimate targets,” Putin said. Putin responded to the Sept. 5 meeting by EU officials and Zelensky discussing post-war security plans.
French President Emmanuel Macron led a meeting of EU leaders trying to hash out possible security plans for Ukraine to prevent another war. But Putin reminds EU officials that Russia, when it signs a peace agreement, would not be the one to breach any agreement, making it unnecessary to harbor foreign forces in Ukraine. Macron initially talked about no placing actual troops in Ukraine but having a NATO-like Article 5 arrangement where 26 EU countries would agree to respond in the event of a new war with Russia. Zelensky hailed the plan as a start in the right direction, more than willing to harbor foreign troops in Ukraine, no matter how it rubbed the Kremlin in the wrong war. Putin said it was completely unnecessary to place troops in Ukraine because Russia would abide by any peace deal. Zelensky has been the one pushing to put EU troops on Ukrainian soil.
Zelensky has aspired to join NATO since before the Feb. 24, 2022 war started, provoking Putin into making his decision to invade. Most of Putin’s decision had to do with former U.S. President Joe Biden army Ukraine to the teeth, then, once the war started, to fund proxy war with the Kremlin. Biden’s decision all by killed decades of U.S.-Russian relations, marking an end to diplomacy, détente, arms control and global cooperation. Trump has worked tirelessly to repair the damage to U.S.-Russian relations to the point now that Putin no longer considers the U.S. under Trump a mortal enemy. That title has shifted to the European Union who, for whatever reason, thinks Putin has his eyes on other European countries. Zelensky has repeated the disinformation that if Putin wins in Ukraine, he would take the fight to Europe. Putin has no intent of fighting NATO.
Peskov says that NATO sees the Kremlin as its enemy in its internal documents. “That is dangerous for our country,” leaving not doubt that Russia would sign no peace agreement that included placing foreign troops in Ukraine. Peskov reminded the EU that the discussion of post-war security cannot be only about Ukraine or the EU but about Russian national security. He said the NATO expansion into eastern Europe has caused the current problems that led to the Ukraine War. Before Putin moved 200,000 Russian troops into Ukraine, he asked Biden for months to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine. Biden spurned Putin’s overtures eventually leading to what he called a “special military operation” designed to demilitarize Ukraine from all the weapons it received from the U.S. Now it’s become evident that the EU considers post-war security arrangements for Brussels.
Why the EU sees the security arrangement necessary for Brussels is anyone’s guess. Recent statements by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calling Putin a “predator” makes peace all the more difficult with Ukraine. When German Chancellor Friedrich Merz calls Putin the most recognized war criminal or our time, it also kills the prospects for peace. President Donald Trump has worked feverishly since taking office on securing a Ukrainian peace deal. Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky doesn’t trust Trump to negotiate with Putin a fair deal for Ukraine. Zelensky has fought three-and-a-half years of war refusing to cede any territory to the Russian Federation. EU officials agree with Zelensky that Ukraine should give up no territory to Putin. Putin controls the territory he seeks as spoils of war in any peace settlement.
EU officials have to rethink its post-war security arrangements for Ukraine and Brussels. Russian won’t agree to any post-war security arrangement that weaken Russian national security to beef up Ukraine or Brussels. “You cannot guarantee the security of one country at the expense of destroying the security of another. That will not help us move closer to a solution to the Ukraine conflict,” Peskov said, thinking more clearly than his counterparts in Paris. EU officials like French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer need to stop thinking selfishly of Ukraine and European security and also consider what works for Russia. Brussels must stop accusing Putin to trying to expand into EU countries, like the Baltic States or Poland, when they have no facts to back it up. Getting a peace deal should be the highest priority.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation C
