The Kremlin is warning of full-scale war if Britain and France put troops on the ground in Ukraine as peacekeepers. Moves by Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron for a force numbering tens of thousands from “coalition of the willing” including NATO states is unacceptable to Vladimir Putin, said his Russian security council deputy Dmitry Medvedev.

This came as fighting raged in the main war zones. Medvedev implied that Donald Trump understood Putin’s objections to NATO troops in Ukraine, yet a force from major Western states backed by the US is seen by Kyiv as vital to guarantee its future security from a new Russian invasion.

“Macron and Starmer are playing dumb,” Medvedev, a former Russian president and prime minister, posted on X.

“Time and again they are told that peacekeepers must be from non-NATO states. No, we will send tens of thousands – just lay it out – you want to give military aid to the neo-Nazis in Kyiv. That means war with NATO. Consult with Trump, scumbags.”

He was backed by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, who said that any force sent to Ukraine must be “unarmed”.

“We absolutely do not care under what label NATO contingents may be deployed on the territory of Ukraine: be it the European Union, NATO or in a national capacity,” he said.

“In any case, if they appear there, it means that they are deployed in a conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as a party to the conflict.”

He said “unarmed observers” or a “civilian mission” might be acceptable but that Ukraine must be neutral and not pro-Western.

A deal must “exclude Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the possibility of deploying foreign military contingents on its territory or using it to exert military pressure on Russia”, he said.

“Part of these guarantees should be Ukraine’s neutral status and the refusal of NATO countries to accept it as a member of the alliance.”

Russian state media commentator Vladimir Kornilov said British troops sent to Ukraine faced death.

“What’s the big deal, Sir Starmer? Admit it to your public: the British military will stay in Ukraine forever if they go in. “Because they would be a legitimate target for Russia.”

However, Trump expects to speak to Putin tomorrow after claiming significant progress in the talks.

“I’ll talk to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work has been done over the weekend,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Florida to Washington.

“We want to see if we can end this war. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.”

The date for the talks may upset Ukraine – it is when Putin marks the Day of Crimea’s Reunification with Russia after he grabbed it in 2014. He claimed there was already talk of “dividing up certain assets”, referring to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, now under Russian military control, but which could come back to Ukraine.

Dramatic footage showed Russia exploding one of 27 Ukrainian drones attacking the industrial town Zheleznogorsk in the Kursk region, close to the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine also attacked a military airfield in Yeysk, a resort and port on the Sea of Azov, where ten explosions were heard. An energy facility was attacked in the Astrakhan region, where a fire ignited, and one person was hospitalised.

Russia said today that 72 drones were destroyed over its territory, half of them over the Kursk region.

Meanwhile, footage showed Russia hitting Odesa – destroying a warehouse and damaging a kindergarten and private housing.

It was one of 25 separate explosions across Ukraine, with other targets including Bucha, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kirovograd, and Vyshgorod.