- French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned the Ukraine conflict with The Economist.
- He stated France might ship troops if requested by Ukraine in response to a Russian breakthrough.
- His remarks about French troopers defending Ukraine are among the many most hawkish by a Western chief.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that he would contemplate sending French troops to Ukraine, and spelled out the circumstances by which this might place.
Speaking to The Economist, Macron described the pressing risk Russia’s President Vladimir Putin poses to Europe within the wake of the 2022 Ukraine invasion.
“I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,” Macron stated, when requested about his earlier feedback that NATO troops might be deployed to assist defend Ukraine.
“We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor!”
He stated he would contemplate sending French troops to Ukraine “if the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request, which is not the case today.”
He added that if Russia defeats Ukraine it could then doubtless search to assault one other European nation.
In current months, political and navy leaders have been issuing more and more stark warnings concerning the doable penalties of a Russian victory in Ukraine.
Macron’s remarks about sending French troops to defend Ukraine have been among the many most hawkish by a Western chief.
They got here as Ukraine struggled to stop Russia from breaking by way of its defensive traces amid a US help block. And although the $61 billion help invoice not too long ago handed, Ukraine remains to be preventing to carry again intensifying Russian assaults.
While NATO international locations have despatched cash and weapons to assist Ukraine, they’ve prevented a direct confrontation amid fears it might escalate the battle with a nuclear-armed Russia.
Under Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, members are pledged to defend one another if attacked.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, in response to Macron’s earlier remarks, stated that deploying NATO troops to Ukraine would result in conflict between Russia and the alliance.
“We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability,” Peskov stated, as quoted by RFE/RL.
Analysts not too long ago mentioned the probability of Russia attacking NATO with Business Insider, with Russian navy professional Ruth Deyermond saying that Putin’s regime is simply too weak militarily to danger a direct confrontation with NATO.
In the interview with The Economist, Macron stated he was decided to stop a Russian victory.
“We mustn’t rule anything out because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine,” he stated.