Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine before a peace agreement has been signed would be considered “legitimate targets” by Moscow’s forces.

Putin’s comments came hours after European leaders repledged their commitment to a potential peacekeeping force, a prospect that Moscow has repeatedly described as “unacceptable.”

“If any troops appear there, especially now while fighting is ongoing, we assume that they will be legitimate targets,” he said during a panel at the Eastern Economic Forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Putin also dismissed the idea of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine after a final peace deal, saying “no one should doubt” that Moscow would comply with a treaty to halt its 3½-year full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

He said that security guarantees would be needed for both Russia and Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later said that Moscow would need “legally binding documents” to outline such agreements. “Of course, you can’t just take anybody’s word for something,” he told Russian news outlet Argumenty i Fakty.

Putin’s comments follow remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday that 26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for Ukraine once fighting ends.

Macron spoke after a meeting in Paris of the so-called coalition of the willing, a group of 35 countries that support Ukraine. He said that 26 of the countries had committed to deploying troops to Ukraine — or to maintaining a presence on land, at sea or in the air — to help guarantee the country’s security the day after any ceasefire or peace is achieved.

Addressing the participants of the international economic conference the Ambrosetti Forum on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was important that security guarantees “start working now, during the war, and not only after it ends.”

He said he could not disclose more details as they are “sensitive and relate to the military sphere.”

Drone strikes continue

Russian troops attacked Ukraine overnight with 157 strike and decoy drones, as well as seven missiles of various types, Ukraine’s air force reported Friday. Air defenses shot down or jammed 121 of the drones, it said.

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One attack damaged multiple residential buildings in Dnipro in central Ukraine, regional administration head Serhii Lysak wrote on social media. The regional administration also said that an unspecified “facility” had been set alight in the strike, but did not give further details.

Lysak shared photos of residential buildings with damaged roofs, glass shards lying on the ground and people carrying wooden boards to cover broken windows. “Private homes were damaged. Windows in apartment buildings were shattered,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region north of Kyiv, Russian drones attacked infrastructure in the Novhorod-Siversk district, leaving at least 15 settlements without electricity, local authorities reported.

Elsewhere, Russian troops destroyed 92 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday. Local social media channels in the city of Ryazan, approximately 125 miles southeast of Moscow, reported that the city’s Rosneft oil refinery had been targeted. They shared videos that appeared to show a fire against the night sky.

Local Gov. Pavel Malkov said that drone debris had fallen on an “industrial enterprise” but did not give further details, instead warning residents not to post images of air defences on social media.

By HOLLY RAMER and AMANDA SWINHART, Associated Press

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A member of the cultlike Zizians group accused of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent is set to make her first court appearance since prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against her.

Teresa Youngblut, 21, of Seattle, is among a group of radical computer scientists focused on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence who have been linked to six killings in three states. She’s accused of fatally shooting agent David Maland in Vermont on Jan. 20, the same day President Donald Trump was inaugurated and signed a sweeping executive order lifting the moratorium on federal executions.

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Youngblut initially was charged with using a deadly weapon against law enforcement and discharging a firearm during an assault with a deadly weapon, crimes that were not punishable by the death penalty. But the Trump administration signaled early on that more serious charges were coming as part of its push for more federal executions, and a new indictment released last month charged her with murder of a federal law enforcement agent, assaulting other agents with a deadly weapon and related firearms offenses.

Youngblut is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges Friday afternoon.

At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. She’s accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.

The pair were among the followers of Jack LaSota, a transgender woman also known as Ziz whose online writing attracted young, highly intelligent computer scientists who shared anarchist beliefs. Members of the group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in 2022, the landlord’s subsequent killing earlier this year, and the deaths of one of the members’ parents in Pennsylvania.

LaSota and two others face weapons and drug charges in Maryland, where they were arrested in February, while LaSota faces additional federal charges of being an armed fugitive. Another member of the group who is charged with killing the landlord in California had applied for a marriage license with Youngblut. Michelle Zajko, whose parents were killed in Pennsylvania, was arrested with LaSota in Maryland, and has been charged with providing weapons to Youngblut in Vermont.

Vermont abolished its state death penalty in 1972. The last person sentenced to death in the state on federal charges was Donald Fell, who was convicted in 2005 of abducting and killing a supermarket worker five years earlier. But the conviction and sentence were later thrown out because of juror misconduct, and in 2018, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

It was the first day of joint practices between the Vikings and the New England Patriots last month and a packed house at TCO Performance Center was flush with fans waiting for a reason to get up out of their seats.

Enter rookie left guard Donovan Jackson, who the Vikings selected in first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Houston Texans defensive lineman Marlon Davidson, left, defends against Minnesota Vikings guard Donovan Jackson (74) during the first half of an NFL preseason football game, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

On a designed screen pass, veteran running back Aaron Jones caught the ball in space, prompting Jackson to take off in a dead sprint to clear a path. As he barreled into the open field like a freight train, Jackson spotted Patriots safety Jaylinn Hawkins in front of him.

“I was like, ‘I’ve got to go get that,’” Jackson said. “That’s kind of my mentality out there.”

That manifested itself in real time, as Jackson pancaked Hawkins with thunderous block, then immediately flattened another defender for good measure.

“It was a sight to see,” young quarterback J.J. McCarthy said. “I love how fired up he got after that.”

The ferociousness Jackson showed on that screen pass doesn’t seem possible given his personality on the surface. Just talk to him for a few minutes. It’s hard to imagine him getting aggressive at any point.

“He’s almost like a gentle giant,” Jones said. “As soon as he steps between those lines, the switch is flipped.”

The passion that burns inside Jackson allows him to go to a different place in his mind when he puts the pads on. It’s been that way ever since he was a rising star at Episcopal High School in Bellaire, Texas.

That’s something Episcopal head coach Steve Leisz and offensive line coach Kary Kemble noticed about Jackson as soon as they started working with him. They would see a happy go lucky kid walking the hallways, then an uncaged animal when it was time to lace up the cleats.

“He could get mean,” Leisz said. “That’s a gift to be able to do it.”

“He had a nasty side,” Kemble said. “You realized that pretty quickly.”

The highlights of Jackson speak for themselves. It was the stuff of legends. It wasn’t unusual to see him destroy a defensive lineman at the point of attack, then level a linebacker in the same sequence.

There’s a reason he was the No. 1 interior offensive lineman in nation before signing his letter of intent with Ohio State. It didn’t matter who lined up across from him. He was man among boys.

It got to the point that Leisz often found himself arguing with officials about Jackson.

“They would call him for holding on clean plays,” Leisz said. “They didn’t know how to officiate him because he was so dominant.”

Though the dominance would occasionally draw a flag that maybe shouldn’t have been thrown, it also allowed Kemble to draw up certain plays that only worked because he had Jackson anchoring the group.

“I could leave him alone on the left side and he would take care of everything over there,” Kemble said. “We would have some schemes where it’d be like, ‘We don’t have enough blockers.’ I would be like, ‘We have Donovan over there. Trust me. We’re going to be OK.’”

As he reflected on how dominant Jackson was back then, Kemble pointed to the state championship game between Episcopal and its bitter rival, Kincaid. It was a close game coming out of halftime when Leisz and Kemble decided enough was enough.

“We got the whole offensive line together and we said, ‘We’re not throwing the ball. Not anymore. We’re going to run the ball and take over the game,’” Kemble said. “I remember Donovan’s eyes lit up. He was like, ‘You’re putting the game on my back?’ I was like, ‘Yes we are.’”

The result was Episcopal literally running away with a 42-21 win over Kincaid.

“We went out and dominated on the ground,” Kemble said. “They knew what was coming and did everything they could to try and stop it. They just couldn’t do anything. He was an unstoppable force that night.”

As the state championship game was starting to get out of hand, Jackson wandered over the Leisz on the sideline.

“He put his arm around me and told me, ‘We broke them,’” Leisz said. “He said that because he knew the game was over.”

Those stories about Jackson make it easy to think back to him wowing the crowd at joint practices. That was an important moment as it provided a glimpse into why the Vikings used the No. 24 pick on Jackson and quickly penciled him in as a starter on the offensive line.

Now he’s preparing to make his NFL debut in primetime on Monday night at Soldier Field when the Vikings take on the Chicago Bears.

The switch will soon be flipped.

“I can’t wait,” Jackson said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s a culmination of everything that has kind of happened to this point. Just looking forward to it and ready to execute my job.”

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Today is Friday, Sept. 5, the 248th day of 2025. There are 117 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 5, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford survived an assassination attempt by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, California.

Also on this date:

In 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.

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In 1836, Sam Houston won the first presidential election in the newly established Republic of Texas.

In 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, ending the Russo-Japanese war; for his efforts in mediating the peace negotiations, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Noble Peace Prize the following year.

In 1957, Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road” was published.

In 1960, Muhammad Ali (as Cassius Clay) won the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing division at the Olympic Games in Rome.

In 1972, Palestinian militants attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation at the Munich Games, killing two and taking nine others hostage; five of the militants, a German police officer and all nine hostages were killed in the following 24 hours.

In 1986, four hijackers who had seized a Pan Am jumbo jet on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan, opened fire on the jet’s passengers; a total of 20 passengers and crew members were killed before Pakistani commandos stormed the jetliner.

In 1991, the 35th annual Naval Aviation Symposium held by the Tailhook Association opened in Las Vegas; during the four-day gathering, there were reports that as many as 90 people, most of them women, were sexually assaulted or otherwise harassed. (The episode triggered the resignation of Navy Secretary Henry L. Garrett III.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Lucille Soong (TV: “Fresh Off the Boat”) is 90.
Baseball Hall of Hamer Bill Mazeroski is 89.
Actor William Devane is 86.
Actor George Lazenby is 86.
Film director Werner Herzog is 83.
Singer Al Stewart is 80.
“Cathy” cartoonist Cathy Guisewite (GYZ’-wyt) is 75.
Actor Michael Keaton is 74.
Actor Rose McGowan is 52.
Olympic gold medal gymnast Tatiana Gutsu is 49.
Actor Carice Van Houten is 49.
Mixed martial artist Francis Ngannou is 39.
Olympic gold medal figure skater Yuna Kim is 35.
Soccer player Bukayo Saka is 24.