Fred Fleitz, former Trump National Security Council chief of staff, on Friday pushed back against talk of deploying Western troops to Ukraine, warning that such proposals stoke Russian President Vladimir Putin’s paranoia and risk escalating the war.
Putin said this week that any Western troops deployed to Ukraine would be considered legitimate military targets for Moscow. His remarks came in response to French President Emmanuel Macron, who touted a pledge by 26 countries to provide postwar security guarantees to Kyiv.
Fleitz, appearing Friday on Newsmax, urged European leaders to stop floating the idea of sending combat forces to Ukraine.
“Well, for some time, I’ve been asking the Europeans to stop proposing deploying European troops on the ground in Ukraine,” Fleitz told “Newsline” host Bianca de la Garza. “Putin invaded for many reasons; they don’t make any sense. One of them is paranoia about Ukraine getting closer to the West and NATO troops being in Ukraine. This was never going to work.”
Fleitz singled out Britain and France, saying their leaders “have to stop talking about this” if there is to be a chance at ending the conflict diplomatically.
Fleitz noted that the U.S. has discussed possible peacekeeping forces from neutral states —not NATO countries — as a way to stabilize Ukraine after the war.
“The U.S. has an alternate proposal for peacekeepers from neutral states, maybe Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh,” Fleitz said. “That may be possible as an observer force.”
But he dismissed outright the notion of Western ground troops.
“This idea of European ground troops going into Ukraine, it is dead on arrival,” Fleitz said. “And frankly, Europe is making it harder to get a peace deal the more they talk about this.”
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