Russia’s foreign intelligence service has bizarrely claimed the West wants to “occupy” Ukraine by deploying peacekeepers across the beleaguered country.
Foreign secretary David Lammy said only this week the UK would not be deploying its military personnel to Ukraine “at this time” despite reports from Le Monde that the UK and France had “revived” the idea.
But, according to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the UK, Poland, Germany and Romania, are looking at sending 100,000 people to Ukraine.
The SVR bizarrely claimed in a statement: “To achieve these [peace] goals, the West will need to occupy Ukraine.
“This will, of course, be done under the pretext of deploying a ‘peacekeeping contingent.’”
The West’s main goal throughout the Ukraine war has been to help Kyiv push Russian troops out of its territory and retain its sovereignty.
According to the Russian state news agency, TASS, the SVR statement read: “The territories set to be distributed among the occupying countries have been outlined as follows: Romania will take the Black Sea coast; Poland will control the western regions of Ukraine; Germany will oversee the centre and east of the country; and the UK will be responsible for the northern regions, including the capital.”
“A total of 100,000 so-called peacekeepers are planned to be sent to Ukraine,” it estimated.
These claims follow former UK PM Boris Johnson’s calls for any possible ceasefire in the Ukraine war to be accompanied by peacekeeping troops.
He told The Telegraph’s Ukraine: The Latest podcast: “I don’t think we should be sending in combat troops to take on the Russians.
“But I think as part of the solution, as part of the end state, you’re going to want to have multinational European peace-keeping forces monitoring the border, helping the Ukrainians.”
Speculation over how the war could end is mounting ahead of US president-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
He has repeatedly pledged to end the war within 24 hours of getting back into power, but has not said how he would do so.
He is reportedly looking to appoint the retired American lieutenant general Keith Kellogg as the US envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
Kellogg has co-authored a policy document which suggests withdrawing weapons from Ukraine if Kyiv refuses to enter peace talks.
The document even suggests giving more weapons to Ukraine is Russia does not agree to a peace deal.
Kellogg also told Reuters news agency in June: “We tell the Ukrainians, ‘You’ve got to come to the table, and if you don’t come to the table, support from the United States will dry up.’
“And you tell Putin, ‘He’s got to come to the table and if you don’t come to the table, then we’ll give Ukrainians everything they need to kill you in the field.’”