MOSCOW, Feb 2 - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it would view the deployment of any foreign military forces or supporting infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and would treat such deployments as legitimate targets, citing comments by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The statement, posted on the ministry's website and described as one of several responses to questions directed at Lavrov, framed the presence of Western military units as posing a direct threat to Russia's security. "The deployment of military units, facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries in Ukraine is unacceptable to us and will be regarded as foreign intervention posing a direct threat to Russia’s security," the ministry said.
It added that Western governments - which have discussed the possible deployment of forces to Ukraine as a means of helping to secure any potential peace agreement - must recognize that "all foreign military contingents, including German ones, if deployed in Ukraine, will become legitimate targets for the Russian Armed Forces."
The ministry reiterated Moscow's long-standing stance that it will not tolerate the presence of troops from Western countries on Ukrainian soil. That warning was given in the context of ongoing diplomatic efforts. The United States has taken a leading role in organizing talks aimed at ending the conflict, and a second three-sided meeting involving Russian and Ukrainian representatives is to take place this week in the United Arab Emirates.
However, the question of ceding internationally recognised Ukrainian territory to Russia remains a major barrier to progress. Kyiv has rejected Russian demands that it relinquish its entire Donbas region, including areas that Russian forces have not captured, and that territorial dispute continues to complicate negotiations.
Alongside its security warning, the Foreign Ministry voiced appreciation for what it described as the "purposeful efforts" of the Trump administration to pursue a resolution of the war. The ministry said Washington has demonstrated an understanding of Russia's longstanding concerns about NATO's eastward expansion and of Western overtures toward Ukraine.
In its remarks, the ministry singled out President Trump as "one of the few Western politicians who not only immediately refused to advance meaningless and destructive preconditions for starting a substantive dialogue with Moscow on the Ukrainian crisis, but also publicly spoke about its root causes."
The ministry's comments underscore persistent diplomatic obstacles and the clear risk Moscow associates with any foreign military footprint in Ukraine, even as multilateral talks continue in an effort to find a path toward resolution.