Putin says sending European troops equals “war against Russia”

“ Athey (European leaders) claim to be analyzing how to send troops into Ukrainian territory. This means a war against Russia,” Putin, quoted by Russian news agencies from New Delhi, attended a BRICS summit.

“We do not threaten or intend to threaten European countries. Why would we? Nobody even realizes that we have no reason to conflict with Europe,” he added.

Putin also stressed that European leaders “scar their populations with an imaginary (from) Russian threat,” adding that “this threat does not exist and never existed.”.

Russia, which launched an offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, always pointed to the sending of Western troops to Ukrainian territory as a “red line” that should not be exceeded.

This idea had been discussed by European leaders for several years, but never came true.

Russia justifies its offensive against Ukraine, among other reasons, for the threat posed by the expansion of NATO — the Western military alliance to which Kiev aspires to join — to its borders.

Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today discussed conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as their impact on maritime trade and the safety of Indian sailors.

The two leaders met at a bilateral meeting in Nova Delhi before the BRICS leaders summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia).

The meeting took place 11 days after the face-to-face meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (OCX) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where Modi called for a change from “endless war to end” in Ukraine.

“ The two leaders examined progress in bilateral cooperation in the political, economic, defence, energy, space, mobility of skills and exchanges between people,” according to a statement.

The Russian Presidency (Kremlin) announced this week that the meeting would address cooperation on defence and technology, including the modernisation of BrahMos missiles, the pending deliveries of S-400 systems, the possible sale of Su-57 fighters and civil nuclear energy projects.

The BRICS summit continues until Sunday with an agenda dominated by war in the Middle East, trade tensions and difficulties in reaching consensus within the broad bloc of the 11 developing countries.