Dmitry Medvedev, a former Prime Minister who is one of Vladimir Putin’s top allies in the Kremlin, branded Keir Starmer a ‘scumbag’ over his peacekeeping plan for Ukraine
Russia ‘explodes one of 27 Ukrainian drones’ attacking Zheleznogorsk
A senior Kremlin official has branded Keir Starmer a ‘scumbag’ over his plan to put peacekeeping troops on the ground in Ukraine.
In a furious new rant, Russian security council deputy, Dmitry Medvedev, blasted the proposals by the Prime Minister and French President Emmanuel Macron for a force numbering tens of thousands – and said the idea was unacceptable to Vladimir Putin. Medvedev meanwhile talked up Donald Trump, who he claimed sympathised with Putin’s objections to NATO troops in Ukraine, and insisted that any peacekeeping forces cannot be drawn from states within the alliance.
The Russian president and former prime minister posted on X:“Macron and Starmer are playing dumb. 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 Kiev [Kyiv]. That means war with NATO. Consult with Trump, scumbags.”
He 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.”
But Trump expects to speak to Putin tomorrow, after claiming significant progress in 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.”
The date for the talks may upset Ukraine – 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.
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 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. It was one of 25 separate explosions heard across Ukraine, with other targets including Bucha, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kirovograd, and Vyshgorod. The US has told Western allies that it will be leaving an international group investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine after a peace deal, the New York Times reported.