Putin Warns European Troop Deployment in Ukraine Would Mean ‘War With Russia’
NEW DELHI, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned European countries that sending troops into Ukraine would mean “war with Russia,” a stark message that underscored how postwar security planning is already colliding with the realities of an escalating conflict.
Putin issued the warning while speaking to reporters at the BRICS summit in New Delhi. “Now, they say they are thinking of how to deploy troops to Ukraine,” he said, according to the state-run news agency TASS. “This would mean a war with Russia.”
The comments followed remarks last week by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said 26 countries had pledged to support sending troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission meant to provide postwar security guarantees. “The day the conflict stops, the security guarantees will be deployed,” Macron told reporters.
The proposal has drawn sharp resistance from Moscow, which has long opposed any Western military presence in Ukraine. By framing a European deployment as a trigger for war, Putin appeared to be trying to deter European capitals from advancing plans that could become a flashpoint even after fighting ends.
On Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated the Russian president’s position. “It’s not a red line, but Russia’s position that has been conveyed to the whole world, primarily to Europeans, in an extremely specific and clear manner,” Peskov told reporters.
The same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country had been hit by nearly 500 attack drones throughout Saturday. “The Russians are burning warehouses with food and gas stations, pharmaceutical facilities and ordinary passenger trains, residential buildings and civilian businesses,” Zelensky said in a statement on X. “Just in the past few days, they have struck a steel plant owned by an Indian business, an American company that produced sunflower oil, and a Polish company that manufactured plumbing fixtures.”
He added that Russian attacks had targeted truck parking lots, ports, shopping malls and energy infrastructure.
The barrage followed a deadly strike a day earlier, when jet-powered Russian drones hit several gas stations in Kyiv, killing two people and injuring 12 others. The attack highlighted the growing danger for civilians far from the front lines.
“This is probably one of the most difficult periods of the war because life is just like on a rollercoaster,” Anastasiia Demchenko, who works near one of the gas stations, told the Guardian. “It feels like life is on the edge.”
Russia has recently increased attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, while Ukraine has struck Russian oil facilities in the port city of Makhachkala, on the Caspian Sea. The exchanges suggest both sides are seeking leverage and inflicting costs even as European leaders discuss what security guarantees might look like once the war stops.
For Europe, Putin’s warning raises difficult questions: whether a peacekeeping force could be deployed without risking a direct confrontation with Moscow, and whether such guarantees can be credible if Russia rejects them outright. For Ukraine, the latest drone assaults reinforce the urgency of air defenses and continued allied support as the war grinds on.