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Kremlin sees Ukrainian petition for deployment of NATO troops as dangerous provocation

The petition to invite foreign troops to Ukraine was posted on the Ukrainian president’s website on Tuesday

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. The Kremlin sees the petition requesting the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine, which has been posted on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s website, as a dangerous provocation, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing.

"We believe that this is no less than an outrageous provocation," the Kremlin spokesman noted. "Certainly, we are closely following the situation," he added. "The Kiev regime is quite unpredictable," Peskov stressed.

The petition to invite foreign troops to Ukraine was posted on the Ukrainian president’s website on Tuesday. The initiative demands Zelensky send requests for troop deployment to European Union countries, the United Kingdom and the United States. The petition needs to be signed by at least 25,000 people to be considered. So far, about 1,500 people have supported it.

The Russian presidential spokesman reiterated Moscow’s warning that "the NATO military’s direct interference in the conflict on the ground is potentially highly dangerous."

French President Emmanuel Macron has been increasingly raising the issue of potential deployment of Western troops to Ukraine. He has explained the initiative by the need to create "strategic ambiguity" in relations with Russia. In response to aggressive statements from Western capitals, Moscow has launched missile forces drills to rehearse the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.

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