Russia on Thursday attacked Ukraine and its European allies calling them an “axis of war”, warning that the agreements reached between them to deploy a peacekeeping force were far from anything Moscow could accept for ending the conflict.”The new militarist declarations of the so-called Coalition of the Willing and the Kyiv regime together form a genuine ‘axis of war’,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, calling the plans “dangerous” and “destructive” in Moscow’s first reaction after Ukraine’s allies announced new security guarantees at a summit in Paris.Russia dismissed the proposal as “militarist” signaling that any such move would harden, rather than ease, the standoff as the war nears its four-year mark.Earlier this week, European leaders and US envoys said the guarantees for Kyiv could include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force, to be deployed if a ceasefire is reached, AFP reported.Britain, France and other allies have signaled readiness to send troops under a post-ceasefire arrangement.However, Russia has repeatedly stated it will not accept Nato members sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, warning they could come under direct Russian fire as the conflict continues. Zakharova warned that Russia would treat any such deployment as “legitimate military targets”. “All such units and facilities will be considered legitimate military targets for the Russian Armed Forces. These warnings have been repeatedly issued at the highest levels and remain valid,” she added.Details of the proposed force remain unclear. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had not yet received an “unequivocal” answer on how the force would respond if Russia attacked again. Ukraine also acknowledged that key issues remain unresolved in any potential peace deal, including control over parts of the eastern Donbas region and the fate of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.However on Thursday, Zelenskyy said that a draft plan outlining American security guarantees for Kyiv was “essentially ready” to be submitted to US President Donald Trump for his approval. “The bilateral document on security guarantees for Ukraine is now essentially ready for finalization at the highest level with the President of the United States,” Zelensky posted on X.Moscow also accused the United States of escalating tensions and endangering international shipping after Washington seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic a day earlier.Moscow’s foreign ministry said the move would “only result in further military and political tensions” and expressed concern over “Washington’s willingness to generate acute international crisis situations.” These remarks came after the US seizure of the Russian-flagged tanker Bella 1 which has links to Venezuela after a pursuit lasting more than two weeks across the Atlantic. Sharing a post on X, US European Command said the operation was carried out by the Justice Department and the Department of War for violations of US sanctions. “The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a US federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro,” it added.
