Russian troops have been constantly hearing foreign languages spoken by those fighting for Ukraine on the front line, and promised that such fighters would be "destroyed," the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Russia has long said that NATO military personnel have been present in Ukraine and that its eavesdropping services have picked up English and French being spoken repeatedly at the front lines.
The US-led NATO military alliance says it supports Ukraine but has not deployed soldiers there. US media reports indicate that the US and leading European intelligence agencies have a significant presence in Ukraine.
"Our military hears foreign speech; they constantly hear foreign languages at the front," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about claims that France was preparing to deploy some soldiers to Ukraine.
"So, these foreigners are there, we are destroying them. Our military will continue to do their job."
Peskov also accused Kyiv of stalling peace talks once more.
"We are currently unable to assess the prospects of resuming the negotiation process, because we have repeatedly stated that the current pause is caused by the Kiev regime's unwillingness to continue the negotiation process."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on Moscow's assertions and stated that Kyiv was ready for peace talks, just not ones that would require it to cede land.
"It's absolutely clear that we're approaching diplomacy only from the position where we currently stand. We will not take any steps back and leave one part of our state or another," Zelensky said.
"And the important result is that the American side finally made this a public signal: President Trump came out with such a message."
The Kremlin's assertions come after the lower house of Russia's state parliament passed a bill that allows the Russian military to conscript year-round to meet the Kremlin's manpower needs, according to the Moscow Times.
While the measure still must pass in Russia's Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, the measure would mean that more conscripts would be sent to active duty during the traditional draft periods of April 1-July 15 and Oct. 1-Dec. 31.
That being said, Zelensky told journalists at a press briefing on Monday that Russian troops outnumber Ukrainian troops at a ratio of eight to one in the frontline city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, the Kyiv Independent reported.
"Imagine how many Russian forces are there. But at the same time, they have not achieved the planned result," he said.
On Sunday, in his nightly Telegram address, Zelensky said that the fighting in the city was "fierce" and that "every such success in the Pokrovsk direction now is incredibly hard to achieve, yet critically important."
Russian troops have partially encircled Pokrovsk after capturing the city of Avdiivka, about 25 miles to the southeast.
According to Ukrainian analysts at DeepState, Ukrainian forces have managed to push back Russian troops from the stronghold of Pokrovsk, but Russian troops have advanced through the Donetsk region.