Russia rules out any options for European peacekeepers in Ukraine

MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow could not consider any options for European peacekeepers being sent to Ukraine and that the idea was aimed at fuelling the conflict and making it harder to de-escalate.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke in favour of the concept during talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, saying troops could be deployed to ensure that any peace deal was respected. Trump said he accepted the idea and that Russian President Vladimir Putin did too, though the Kremlin later indicated that Russian opposition to it was unchanged.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is due to hold talks with Trump on Thursday, has said he would be ready to send British troops to Ukraine as part of any postwar peacekeeping force.

But Lavrov, who has previously called the proposal unacceptable, set out Moscows objections to any deployment in some of the strongest terms yet, removing any doubt about the matter after Trumps suggestion that Putin had come round to the idea.

We cannot consider any options when it comes to European peacekeepers, he said during a visit to Qatar.

Trump said that a decision on the deployment of peacekeeping forces would only be possible with the consent of both sides. Apparently referring to us and Ukraine. Nobody has asked us about this, said Lavrov, who some Western diplomats nickname Doctor No because of his habit of frequently voicing Moscows objections to various Western initiatives.

This approach, which is being imposed by the Europeans, primarily France, but also the British, is aimed at what I just mentioned: to further fuel the conflict and to stop any attempts to calm it down.

Doubling down on Russias so far maximalist approach to any potential settlement over Ukraine, Lavrov indicated Moscow still wanted