Russia slams Western peacekeeping plan for Ukraine

Russia on Thursday slammed a plan for European peacekeepers to be deployed to Ukraine as "dangerous", branding Kyiv and its allies an "axis of war" and dousing hopes it could be a step towards ending the almost four-year-long war.

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Ukrainian soldiers learn how to use a FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile system at an undisclosed location in Zaporizhzhia region.

(AFP)

US President Donald Trump has been pushing the warring sides to strike a deal to halt the conflict, running shuttle diplomacy between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin to try to get an agreement across the line.

An initial 28-point plan that largely adhered to Moscow’s demands was criticised by Kyiv and Europe. Now Russia has condemned attempts to beef up protections for Ukraine should an elusive deal be reached.

Ukraine’s allies said they had agreed key security guarantees for Kyiv at a summit in Paris earlier this week, including a peacekeeping force.

But in its first comments since the summit, Moscow said the statements were far from anything the Kremlin could accept to end its assault.

"The new militarist declarations of the so-called Coalition of the Willing and the Kyiv regime together form a genuine ‘axis of war’,” Russia’ foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. The plans drafted by Kyiv’s allies were "dangerous" and "destructive", she added.