Russia dismissed the proposal to deploy European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, contradicting earlier claims by President Donald Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin would agree to such a force as part of a peace deal, Politico has reported.

During a Wednesday press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow held a “negative attitude” toward proposals to send European troops as peacekeepers, adding that NATO’s expansion over the past 25 years was “one of the root causes” of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Peskov’s remarks called into question Trump’s earlier claim that Putin was receptive to a European-led peacekeeping mission. While seated alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in Washington on Feb. 24, Trump said he had “specifically asked” Putin about the matter and was assured the Russian leader “had no problem with it.”

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