Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that any Western troops deployed to Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Moscow to attack.
He was speaking a day after French president Emmanuel Macron said 26 countries had pledged to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, including an international force on land, sea and in the air.
Russia has long argued that one of its reasons for going to war in Ukraine was to prevent Nato from admitting Kyiv as a member and placing its forces in Ukraine.
“Therefore, if some troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for destruction,” Mr Putin told an economic forum in Vladivostok.
“And if decisions are reached that lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply do not see any sense in their presence on the territory of Ukraine, full stop.”
Meanwhile, Urkainian pesident Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to meet European Council president Antonio Costa and Slovak prime minister Robert Fico in Ukraine on Friday. Mr Zelenskiy said they planned to talk about energy issues.
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