Russian President Vladimir Putin PRAGUE, Sept 04 (AFP/Reuters): NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday that Russia did not have a veto on whether Western powers can deploy troops to Ukraine as part of security guarantees if a truce is reached.
"Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It's a sovereign country. It's not for them to decide," Rutte said. "Russia has nothing to do with this."
Leaders from a so-called coalition of the willing spearheaded by France and Britain are holding talks Thursday to firm up contributions to the planned security guarantees.
"If Ukraine wants to have security guarantee forces in Ukraine to support a peace deal, it's up to them. Nobody else can decide about it," Rutte said on a visit to Prague.
"I think we really have to stop making Putin too powerful," he added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia has said it remains firmly opposed to any Western troops being deployed in Ukraine as part of a possible peace settlement.
Western diplomats say that the group of roughly 30 countries discussing a possible "reassurance force" for Ukraine now have concrete numbers of the troops they could commit.
European nations hope that by putting a clear plan on the table they can convince US President Donald Trump to make good on a promise to offer American military backing.
Trump has been pushing to end the war, but the Kremlin has been stalling efforts to organise direct talks between Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he was ready to hold talks with Volodymyr Zelensky if the Ukrainian president came to Moscow, but said it remained to be seen whether such a meeting was worthwhile.
Zelensky has been pressing to meet Putin to discuss the terms of a possible deal and US President Donald Trump - who has been trying to broker a peace settlement - has said he wants the two leaders to meet.
Speaking in China at the end of a visit there, Putin said he had always been open to meeting Zelensky but reiterated the Kremlin's oft-repeated stance that such a meeting had to be well prepared in advance and lead to tangible results.
"As for a meeting with Zelensky I have never ruled out the possibility of such a meeting. But is there any point? Let's see," said Putin.
The Russian leader said that in his view Ukraine needed to cancel martial law, hold elections, and hold a referendum about territorial questions if progress was to be made.
Russia claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian regions in 2022, a claim Kyiv and most Western countries rejected as an attempted illegal land grab backed by a colonial-style war of conquest.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he plans to hold talks about the war in Ukraine in coming days after his Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August failed to achieve a breakthrough.
Trump has been frustrated at his inability to get a halt to the fighting, which began with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022, after he initially predicted he would be able to end the war swiftly when he took office last January.
Trump said he would be holding talks in the next few days. A White House official said Trump is expected to speak on the phone on Thursday with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The French presidency said earlier on Wednesday that several European leaders, including Zelensky and France's Emmanuel Macron, would call Trump on Thursday afternoon.
That call was expected to follow a mostly virtual meeting on Thursday, hosted by France, of some 30 countries to discuss their latest efforts to provide Ukraine with security support once there is a peace agreement.
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