RUSSIA’S President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine before a peace agreement has been signed would be considered “legitimate targets” by Moscow’s forces.

President Putin’s comments came hours after European leaders repeated their commitment to a potential peacekeeping force, a prospect that Moscow has repeatedly described as “unacceptable.”

Mr Putin told a panel at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok that if any troops appear in Ukraine, “especially now while fighting is ongoing, we assume that they will be legitimate targets.”

The Russian president also dismissed the idea of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine after a final peace deal, saying “no-one should doubt” that Moscow would comply with a treaty to halt its more than three-year invasion of its neighbour.

He said that security guarantees would be needed for both Russia and Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later said that Moscow would need “legally binding documents” to outline such agreements. “Of course, you can’t just take anybody’s word for something,” he told Russian news outlet Argumenty i Fakty.

Mr Putin’s comments follow remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday after a meeting in Paris of the so-called coalition of the willing, a group of 35 countries that support Ukraine.

He said that 26 of the countries had committed to deploying troops to Ukraine — or to maintaining a presence on land, at sea or in the air — to help guarantee the country’s security the day after any ceasefire or peace was achieved.

Addressing the participants of the international economic conference the Ambrosetti Forum on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was important that security guarantees “start working now, during the war, and not only after it ends.”

Meanwhile, Russian troops attacked Ukraine overnight with 157 strike and decoy drones, as well as seven missiles of various types, Ukraine’s air force reported Friday.

The regional administration in Dnipro in central Ukraine said that an unspecified “facility” had been set alight in the strike, but did not give further details.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region north of Kiev, Russian drones attacked infrastructure in the Novhorod-Siversk district, leaving at least 15 settlements without electricity, local authorities reported.

Elsewhere, Russian troops destroyed 92 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday.

Local social media channels in the city of Ryazan, approximately 125 miles south east of Moscow, reported that the city’s Rosneft oil refinery had been targeted.