{"id":199004,"date":"2026-02-03T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-live-moscow-says-foreign-troops-in-ukraine-would-be-targets-in-new-threat-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:01:06","slug":"ukraine-live-moscow-says-foreign-troops-in-ukraine-would-be-targets-in-new-threat-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-live-moscow-says-foreign-troops-in-ukraine-would-be-targets-in-new-threat-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine live: Moscow says foreign troops in Ukraine would be \u2018targets\u2019 in new threat – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in<\/span>Please refresh your browser to be logged in<\/span>
Swipe for next article
Both the UK and France have pledged to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal
Removed from bookmarks
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Foreign troops in Ukraine<\/a> will be regarded as \u201clegitimate targets\u201d by Russia<\/a>, the Kremlin\u2019s foreign minister has said in the latest threat against Kyiv\u2019s allies.
Sergei Lavrov said Moscow<\/a> would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and treat them as legitimate targets.
“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 on its website.
Britain and France have both pledged to put troops in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal – a key security guarantee for Kyiv.
Lavrov also heaped praise on Donald Trump for his “purposeful efforts\u201d to end the conflict following the first trilateral talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine.
Both the Kremlin <\/a>and Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> have confirmed the second round of talks will begin on Wednesday.
The next round of US-brokered trilateral talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Abu Dhabi from February 4-5, the Kremlin said on Monday, adding that talks planned for February 1 had not happened for scheduling reasons.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia and Ukraine had so far managed to narrow their differences on some issues, but had not made similar progress when it came to what he called more complex issues.
Ukraine is receiving two lorries worth of potatoes after Berlin experienced a bumper harvest year with its biggest crop in more than two decades.
The phenomenon has inspired a potato dump in Berlin, as farmers, not wanting their produce to go to waste, have given away their potatoes away to soup kitchens, schools, churches, and the public.
Two lorries worth of spuds have also been delivered to Ukraine.
It comes as the country experiences a brutal winter, with temperatures in some areas dropping to -30C.
Russia has been repeatedly targeting Ukraine\u2019s energy grid, leaving thousands of Ukrainians without power or food.
As we near the resumption of Ukrainian-US-Russian peace talks this week, let\u2019s take a look back at President Zelensky\u2019s warning from Thursday.
A key political ally of Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine has called for a peace deal which prioritises people over land ahead of a major conference in the war torn country on Thursday.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv Oblast region in Ukraine, is an emerging name in Ukrainian politics and spoke to The Independent as other governors and mayors get together to discuss where the peace line needs to be drawn in the war with Russia.
Mr Kim headed the Mykolaiv branch of Zelensky\u2019s Servant of the People party during the 2019 elections and was appointed by the Ukrainian president to be regional governor in November 2020.
The Independent\u2019s political editor David Maddox reports:<\/em><\/strong>
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that if the New START treaty expires then the world should be alarmed that the biggest nuclear powers had no limits for the first time in decades.
Signed in 2010 by US president Barack Obama and Medvedev, the New START treaty limited the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 on each side.
It is due to expire on February 5 and Russian officials have said they have had no official response from Washington on a proposal from Vladimir Putin to stick to existing missile and warhead limits for one more year.
“I don’t want to say that this immediately means a catastrophe and a nuclear war will begin, but it should still alarm everyone,” Medvedev told Reuters news agency, TASS and the WarGonzo Russian war blogger in an interview at his residence outside Moscow.
“The (doomsday) clocks are ticking and they obviously have to speed up,” he said.
At least four people were injured in a Russian drone attack on the Cherkasy region last night.
Ihor Taburets, head of the region\u2019s military administration, said authorities are \u201crecording the fall of enemy drones at several locations\u201d after \u201cfires broke out\u201d as a result of the attack.
Russia fired 171 drones and one Iskander-M ballistic missile in the overnight attack.
A proposal by European powers to deploy Nato-member troops in Ukraine as part of a proposed security guarantee and peace deal was unacceptable for Russia, said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
“What kind of guarantee can we talk about if a foreign contingent of unfriendly Nato member states is stationed on the territory of such a state,” Medvedev told said in an interview.
Medvedev said Russia’s terms for ending the conflict were unchanged from 2024 when president Vladimir Putin set them out in a speech at the foreign ministry.
German authorities on Monday detained five men accused of being part of a network that illegally exported goods to Russian defense companies after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The arrests took place in L\u00fcbeck in northern Germany and in nearby Lauenburg district, federal prosecutors said. The men are all German nationals; two are also Russian citizens and another is also a Ukrainian citizen. They are suspected of membership in a criminal organization and violating Germany’s foreign trade and payments act.
Searches were carried out at properties elsewhere in the country, and another five suspects have not been detained, prosecutors said in a statement.
Read the full story:<\/em><\/strong>
Ukraine’s electricity imports jump by 40 per cent in January 2026 versus December 2025 to a record 894 gigawatt hours amid constant Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, analyst ExPro said on Monday.
“This is the highest import figure for the period of full-scale war. Hungary continues to account for the largest share \u2013 45%. Overall, supplies increased in all directions except Moldova,” the consultancy said in a report.
Russian has ramped up attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure during 2026, as the war-torn country has been in the grip of bitter wintery weather.
The EU\u2019s decision last week to ban Russian gas imports was “100% legally sound”, the bloc’s energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen told reporters in Lisbon on Monday.
“We’ve said we will no longer help indirectly finance (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war in Ukraine by buying gas there,” Mr Jorgensen said after meeting with Portugal\u2019s energy minister Maria da Graca Carvalho.
“That also means it’s no longer possible for Russia to blackmail EU member states to weaponise energy against us,” he added.
Despite opposition from Hungary and Slovakia, European Union countries last week approved a law banning Russian gas imports by late 2027, turning a political pledge to cut energy ties with Moscow into binding legislation nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in<\/span>Please refresh your browser to be logged in<\/span><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inSwipe for next articleBoth the UK and France have pledged to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace dealRemoved from bookmarksFrom reproductive rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-199004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}