Russia says foreign troops sent to Ukraine after a peace deal would be legitimate targets

MOSCOW, July 15 (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday that any multinational force sent by Ukraine’s allies to deploy there in the event of a peace deal would be unacceptable to Moscow and that it would see it as a threat and a legitimate military target.

Western allies in the pro-Ukrainian “coalition of the willing” met in Paris this week and reaffirmed their intention to deploy such a force after the end of hostilities to reassure Ukraine and help it renew its forces.

They also said exercises would be held in the coming months to demonstrate the ability of the planned force, known as the Multinational Force for Ukraine (MNF-U), to mobilize.

“In this context, we would like to reiterate that the deployment of any military units from the countries of the so-called ‘coalition of volunteers’ to Ukraine is unacceptable for our country,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria ‌Zakharova told reporters.

“I repeat: This means de facto foreign intervention and increased threats to Russia’s security. We will consider such units as legitimate military targets.”

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Gleb Stolyarov, Editing by Peter Graff)