Speculation over possible Western deployments, potentially as a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire, has ratched up amid an escalation in the near three-year war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that the talk of boots on the ground showed the West was not listening to Moscow's concerns.

"All these fantasies are only exacerbating the situation, and show that the people who hold such ideas, prefer not to hear the very clear warnings that President Putin has repeatedly given," he told reporters.

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said last month that there were no "red lines" when it came to Paris's support for Ukraine.

Asked whether this included a French troop deployment, he said: "We do not discard any option."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday it was too early and "inappropriate" to discuss whether Berlin would in future send troops to a possible peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

Lavrov was speaking after an OSCE summit in Malta, his first trip to an EU country since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.