Putin Warns Europe: Deploying Troops to Ukraine Means War
Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered a grim assessment of relations between Russia and the West, warning European governments against deploying any troops, including peacekeeping forces, to Ukraine. Putin stressed that such a step would mean war.
“They are talking about considering the deployment of troops to Ukrainian territory,” Putin said after taking part in the BRICS summit in New Delhi on Friday (11/9). “This would mean war with Russia.”
Putin condemned what he described as systemic errors committed by Western globalist circles. He insisted that Russia poses no danger to European countries, which he claimed were merely attempting to frighten their populations with mythical Russian threats.
Furthermore, Putin blamed the West for the war in Ukraine through NATO’s expansion efforts. He accused the West of directly supporting separatism in the Caucasus and attempting to break Russia apart. “The current crisis in Ukraine was also triggered by them,” he added.
Putin’s strong statements were accompanied by Russian drone strikes targeting passenger rail infrastructure in western Ukraine. The attack occurred as a number of Western diplomats and officials, including former CIA Director David Petraeus and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, were leaving the country after attending the Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference in Kyiv.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius described the drone attack as a measured escalation designed to sow fear across Europe. “It is very important for us to keep a cool head, not to allow ourselves to be provoked, but at the same time to leave no doubt that we are capable of defending ourselves,” Pistorius said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also warned that the coming weeks would be a period of highly intensive action by Russia. He did not rule out the possibility that this escalation would affect Polish territory.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration, through presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, has renewed efforts to restart peace negotiations. Kushner revealed that Washington had drafted most of a peace agreement, but progress was hampered by Ukraine’s reluctance to make territorial concessions.
Russia currently occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Putin demands that Ukraine hand over the entire eastern Donbas region. Ukraine, for its part, insists that ceding land Russia has failed to capture militarily is impossible.
The proposal to deploy European peacekeeping troops had previously been discussed as one way to provide security guarantees for Ukraine. Britain and France had even signed a declaration of intent to deploy forces if a peace deal were reached. However, with negotiations stalled and Washington’s focus divided among other conflicts, the proposal has now faded.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, assessed that Europe’s growing role in supporting Ukraine’s strike capabilities has now become Moscow’s chief strategic concern, in some respects even surpassing the United States and NATO.