Europe is trying to “occupy” Ukraine by offering to send peacekeeping troops to the war-torn country, according to a Russian diplomat.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer has offered to put British boots on the ground to support Kyiv if Russia agrees to the US’s peace plans – and as long as there is an American security guarantee.

Some EU countries and Nato allies have already indicated they would join this plan, as part of Starmer’s “coalition of the willing”.

Moscow has not agreed to a permanent truce yet, nor has Donald Trump agreed to provide a security backstop to a peacekeeping plan, so any such plan is still a long way off.

But Rodion Miroshnik – Putin’s so-called “ambassador-at-large” for Ukraine’s alleged “crimes” – attempted to cast doubt on the offer to send a “reassurance force” on Wednesday.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Miroshnik said: “The Europeans have announced a project to build a reassurance force that, according to the organisers, will be sent to Ukraine after a peace agreement is signed.

“This could, in fact, be viewed as a blatant occupation of Ukraine by Europe.”

It was Vladimir Putin who invaded Ukraine in 2022 and who continues to occupy a fifth of its sovereign territory.

Moscow has even claimed Ukraine would have to formally cede that occupied land in any permanent truce.

But Miroshnik still bizarrely alleged Europe wants to “take control over [Ukraine’s] political regime militarily while retaining external governance of this land regardless of how negotiations may end.”

Ukraine has actually welcomed any physical support from its allies, and asked for at least 200,000 troops to deter any future Russian aggression.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that Kyiv was meeting with several countries “who are ready to deploy a contingent in one form or another”.