Kremlin slams Macron's peacekeeper initiative for Ukraine

The Kremlin on Thursday condemned French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to discuss stationing European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.

In a televised speech on Monday evening, Macron announced that he would host an international meeting next week to discuss the possible deployment of peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

The French president also described Russia's rearmament as a threat to European security and said he would consider placing allied countries under the protection of French nuclear weapons.

Macron's speech was directed against Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

Under these circumstances, Moscow's position on the deployment of European peacekeepers in Ukraine is clear, Peskov told Russian news agencies, describing it as a "confrontational deployment."

Peskov reiterated that Russia was ready to end the conflict and said he agreed with US Secretary of State's Marco Rubio's statement that Russia and the United States were fighting a proxy war in Ukraine.

The White House announced on Monday that it would suspend arms deliveries to Kyiv and has piled pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept territorial concessions to Russia in a peace deal.

Despite the U-turn in Washington's Ukraine policy under President Donald Trump, Russia does not see the US as a friendly country, Peskov added.