Western troops in Ukraine: Europeans reluctant to the idea outlined by Macron

Berlin, London and other European allies of kyiv have opposed the move. Tuesday a dismissal of the remarks of the French President Emmanuel Macron believing the day before that the sending of Western troops to Ukraine could not "&be excluded" .

The Kremlin for its part judged that it was “absolutely not in the interest of these countries” to send soldiers to Ukraine. The mere mention of this possibility constituted “a very important new element” in the conflict, added the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov.

Asked about the risk of a direct conflict between NATO and Russia, in the event of a military presence in Ukraine, Dmitri Peskov replied that “in this case, we should not talk about probability, but about inevitability”.

Monday in Paris, Emmanuel Macron recognized that there was “no consensus today to send ground troops in an official, assumed and endorsed manner” . “But dynamically, nothing must be excluded. We will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” he added, saying he was “assuming” a “strategic ambiguity”.

“Many people who say 'Never, never' today were the same people who said 'Never tanks, never planes, never long-range missiles' two years ago years”, he also underlined.

French President Emmanuel Macron (2nd d) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the opening of a conference in support of Ukraine, February 26, 2024 at the Elysée, in Paris © POOL – GONZALO FUENTES

Mr. Macron was speaking at the end of an international conference in support of Ukraine, hastily organized in France in the presence of twenty-seven other countries, at a critical moment for Kiev, awaiting the necessary Western weapons. to its survival.

This hypothetical sending of troops to Ukraine, on a bilateral basis, would be linked to actions identified as priorities for the Europeans: cyberdefense, co-production of arms in Ukraine, demining…

– “Without crossing the threshold of belligerence” –

“Some of these actions could require a presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of belligerence,” said the head of French diplomacy Stéphane Séjourné on Tuesday. So no troops intended to fight directly against the Russians.

The United Kingdom has also recognized that “a small number” of people sent by London were already on site “to support the Ukrainian armed forces, particularly in terms of medical training”, according to a spokesperson for the Prime Minister British Rishi Sunak, specifying however: “We do not plan a large-scale deployment.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz affirmed Tuesday that “no soldier” would be sent to Ukraine by European or NATO countries: “What was decided between us from the beginning continues to be valid for the future”, namely “that there will be no troops on the ground , no soldiers sent either by European States or by NATO States on Ukrainian soil”.

Support for kyiv “does not foresee the presence on Ukrainian territory of troops from European states or NATO”, underlined the Italian government, whose Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, called for “to be very careful ” on this subject, because “we must not appear to be at war with Russia”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, February 26, 2024 in Stockholm © AFP – Jonathan NACKSTRAND

Spain “does not agree” with the idea launched by Mr Macron, and the duo formed by Poland and the Czech Republic “does not consider sending” troops to Ukraine”, according to their leaders.

Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister of Sweden which will very soon become the 32nd member of NATO, argued that “there is no request” on the Ukrainian side for ground troops. So “the question is not current”, he insisted, without however excluding this possibility in the future.

– NATO “No plans” –

NATO has also ruled out any sending of troops to the theater of operations. “NATO and Allies are providing unprecedented military aid to Ukraine. We have done so since 2014 and shifted into high gear after the full-scale Russian invasion. But there are no plans of NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine,” an Alliance official told AFP on Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron (d) and his Ukrainian counterpart after signing a bilateral security agreement, February 16, 2024 at the Elysée, in Paris © POOL – Thibault Camus

Since receiving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in mid-February at the Elysée to sign a bilateral security agreement, Emmanuel Macron has painted a very dark picture of Vladimir Putin's intentions and has tried to position himself at the forefront of support brought to Kiev.

Within the French political class, the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine raised an outcry among the opposition, from the radical left to the extreme right through the socialists and the right.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during a question session to the government at the National Assembly, February 27, 2024 in Paris © AFP – STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal judged on Tuesday that there was “reason to wonder if Vladimir Putin's troops (were) not already” in France, specifically targeting Marine Le Pen, in a tense skirmish in parliament with the far-right MP, favorite in the 2027 presidential election.

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