Kremlin warns of WW3 with NATO if ‘dumb’ Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron ship peacekeeping troops to Ukraine – as Trump outlines particulars of Putin talks

The Kremlin has threatened a full-scale war with NATO states if Britain and France deploy peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron‘s proposed ‘coalition of the willing’, which could see the deployment of minehunters and 10,000 troops from the EU and NATO, is unacceptable to Vladimir Putin, his Russian security council deputy has warned.

‘Macron and Starmer are playing dumb,’ Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and prime minister, posted on X. 

‘Time and again they are told that peacekeepers must be from non-NATO states.

‘No, we will send tens of thousands – just lay it out – you want to give military aid to the neo-Nazis in Kyiv.’

Medvedev implied that Donald Trump understood Putin’s objections to NATO troops in Ukraine, yet a force from major Western states backed by the US is seen by Kyiv as vital to guarantee its future security from a new Russian invasion.

‘That means war with NATO. Consult with Trump, scumbags,’ he added.

Fighting continues to rage in the main war zones with Ukraine’s air defence units claiming to have shot down 90 of 174 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack.

Trump has said he will speak to Putin tomorrow as military chiefs from Sir Keir and Mr Macron’s coalition prepare to meet in London on Thursday to discuss plans for a Western peacekeeping force.

Medvedev’s warning against Britain and France’s coalition was backed by Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko who said that any force sent to Ukraine must be ‘unarmed’.

‘We absolutely do not care under what label NATO contingents may be deployed on the territory of Ukraine: be it the European Union, NATO or in a national capacity,’ he said.

‘In any case, if they appear there, it means that they are deployed in a conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as a party to the conflict.’

He said ‘unarmed observers’ or a ‘civilian mission’ might be acceptable but that Ukraine must be neutral and not pro-Western.

A deal must ‘exclude Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the possibility of deploying foreign military contingents on its territory or using it to exert military pressure on Russia‘, he said.

‘Part of these guarantees should be Ukraine’s neutral status and the refusal of NATO countries to accept it as a member of the alliance.’

Russian state media commentator Vladimir Kornilov said British troops sent to Ukraine faced death.

‘What’s the big deal, Sir Starmer? Admit it to your public: the British military will stay in Ukraine forever if they go in.

‘Because they would be a legitimate target for Russia.’

Trump expects to speak to Putin tomorrow, after claiming significant progress in peace talks.

‘I’ll talk to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work has been done over the weekend,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Florida to Washington.

‘We want to see if we can end this war. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.’

Trump said ‘dividing up certain assets’ will form part of the conversation about bringing the war to a close.

‘We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,’ he said.

The call, announced by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, comes as Putin continues to resist a US-backed proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. 

The date for the talks may upset Ukraine as it is when Putin marks the Day of Crimea’s Reunification with Russia after he grabbed it in 2014.

He claimed there was already talk of ‘dividing up certain assets’, referring to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, now under Russian military control, but which could come back to Ukraine.

Zelensky’s air force shot down 90 drones launched by Russia overnight. Military officials said 70 drones were lost, referring to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them.

‘Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions were affected by the Russian attack,’ the military said on the Telegram messenger app.

Russia has been attacking Odesa and the Odesa region with drones and missiles on a daily basis for three weeks. The region is key for Ukrainian maritime exports.

One civilian was injured during the attack, which damaged a kindergarten, a private residential house, a shop and a passenger car, Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

Kiper said about 500 residents in the suburbs of Odesa were left without electricity after drones hit energy infrastructure, providing no further details.

Dramatic footage showed Russia exploding one of 27 Ukrainian drones attacking industrial town Zheleznogorsk in the Kursk region, close to the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine also attacked a military airfield in Yeysk, a resort and port on the Sea of Azov, where ten explosions were heard.

An energy facility was attacked in Astrakhan region where a fire ignited and one person was hospitalised.

Russia said today 72 drones were destroyed over its territory, half of them over Kursk region.

Meanwhile, footage showed Russia hitting Odesa – destroying a warehouse and damaging a kindergarten and private housing.

The was one of 25 separate explosions across Ukraine, with other targets including Bucha, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kirovograd, and Vyshgorod.

Ukraine said to be under increasing pressure in the eastern Donetsk region, part of which has been under Russian control since 2014.

Zelensky’s troops are also reported to be in retreat in the Kursk region of Russia, which they seized in a surprise raid in August in an attempt to secure a bargaining chip for future negotiations.

The US has notified its Western partners that it is leaving an international group investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine, the New York Times reported.

Although Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accepted the proposed unconditional ceasefire, Putin has said Ukraine must agree to give up its ambitions of joining NATO and cede territory to Russia before any pause in hostilities.

Sir Keir has accused Putin of seeking to ‘delay’ a ceasefire, while French President Macron has said the Russian president ‘does not seem to be sincerely seeking peace.

Military chiefs from the ‘coalition of the willing’ will meet in London on Thursday to discuss plans for a peacekeeping force to be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

Following a virtual meeting on Saturday with the leaders of 26 other nations, plus representatives from the EU and NATO, the British Prime Minister said there had been ‘new commitments’ offered and planning would now move into an ‘operational phase’.

But it remains unclear which nations have committed troops to a peacekeeping operation, while several have suggested such talks are premature given the lack of a ceasefire.

Putin is also likely to object to any agreement that involves European or NATO troops being stationed in Ukraine, although Zelensky sees this as essential to deterring future Russian aggression.

Conditions demanded by Russia to agree to a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine show that Moscow does not really want peace, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

‘Those conditions that they have presented – it shows that they don’t really want peace, actually, because they are presenting as conditions all their ultimate goals that they want to achieve from the war,’ Kallas told reporters in Brussels.