Emmanuel Macron has once again refused to rule out the possibility NATO combat troops will be sent to Ukraine.
Speaking on March 15, he maintained that “all these options are possible” when asked about the prospect of Western soldiers being deployed in the war-torn eastern European nation.
Nevertheless, during an interview with French national television TF1 and France 2, he added: “We’re not in that situation today.”
After he said it is up to the Kremlin not to escalate tensions in a way that would bring the Western alliance to consider sending troops to Ukraine, he added: “Today, to have peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak.”
This isn’t the first time Mr Macron has raised the prospect of NATO soldiers joining Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.
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In February, after holding a summit in Paris with EU leaders and officials from the UK, US and Canada, he said “nothing should be excluded” to support Ukraine and avoid Russia prevailing.
Earlier this month, he doubled down on his controversial statement, saying Western allies must “not be cowards”.
The Kremlin has already stated that NATO troops fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers would lead to a direct clash between Russia and the Western military alliance.
On February 27, after the summit in Paris, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element.
“We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability [of a direct conflict between Russian and NATO].”
A few days later, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergei Naryshkin also issued a warning, saying: “This is, of course, sad to see, to observe and to understand that the ability of current elites in Europe and the North Atlantic to negotiate is at a very low level.
“It is more and more rare that they demonstrate any common sense at all. But these statements are extremely dangerous. They are already taking us to the brink of nuclear war.”
Many countries, including Germany, Britain and Poland, have distanced themselves from any suggestion they might commit ground troops to the war raging in Ukraine, while NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the support provided to Ukraine by the military alliance will continue not to involve sending soldiers to the war-torn nation.
