French President Macron Signals Possibility of Troop Deployment to Ukraine

As allies decided to step up attempts to get more ammunition to Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday opened the door for European countries to send soldiers to Ukraine, though he stressed that there was no unanimity at this point.

Some twenty European leaders convened in Paris on Monday to dispute the Kremlin narrative that Russia is certain to win the war, now in its third year, and to convey to Russian President Vladimir Putin the European Union’s stance towards Ukraine.

“There is no consensus at this stage … to send troops on the ground,” Macron told reporters. “Nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win.”

There were no intentions to send NATO forces to battle in Ukraine, a White House official told Reuters. Neither did the US want to commit troops there.

Amidst reports of increased Russian aggressiveness in recent weeks, Macron’s advisers called a hastily scheduled meeting of his European counterparts at the Elysee Palace to discuss ways to increase munitions shipments to Ukraine.

Ukraine has seen reverses on the eastern front after initially repelling the Russian army, and its generals have lamented a lack of manpower and weapons.

Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, stated that a number of NATO and EU states were thinking about sending soldiers to Ukraine on a bilateral basis. Fico has opposed providing military aid to Ukraine.

Before getting into his plane to return home, he stated, “I can confirm there are countries that are prepared to send their own troops to Ukraine, there are countries that say never, among which Slovakia belongs, and there are countries that say this proposal needs to be considered.”

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy echoed Macron’s caution about a conflict escalation when he addressed the leaders via videolink, saying, “We must ensure that Putin cannot destroy our achievements and cannot expand his aggression to other nations.”

Macron said: “Many people who say ‘Never, never’ today were the same people who said ‘never tanks, never planes, never long-range missiles’ two years ago.”

“Let us have the humility to note that we have often been six to twelve months late. This was the objective of this evening’s discussion: everything is possible if it is useful to achieve our objective,” he said, adding that Europe should not depend on the United States to fight in Ukraine.