French President Emmanuel Macron’s words refusing to “rule out” sending troops to Ukraine pto help the country invaded by Vladimir Putin There was quite a storm within the alliance. Macron himself admitted after the summit, which took place on Monday at the Elysee Palace in Paris, that sending military personnel to Ukraine was an idea that had not found the consensus of NATO allies. A few prophetic words, because a few hours later, practically all European colleagues hastily denied that their country was considering this scenario.
“What we have agreed upon together and between us will remain valid in the future: this there are no ground troops, “There are no soldiers on Ukrainian soil who were sent by European or NATO countries,” said Chancellor Olaf Scholz. As if there was little doubt, he reaffirmed himself shortly afterwards with a message on social networks in which he called on other countries, including France, to also lend their shoulder in this matter Deliver weapons to Ukraine as a way to win the war. “Germany is the European country that provides the most military support to Ukraine. This will continue to be the case. “But it is clear that we will not become part of the conflict, either directly or indirectly,” the Chancellor denied and recalled: “We agreed yesterday in Paris that everyone must do more for Ukraine.” “Ukraine needs weapons , ammunition and air defense.”
The Secretary General of the military organizationJens StoltenbergHe also spoke out against Macron’s comments. “NATO allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We’ve been doing this since 2014 and stepped it up after the invasion. But No plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine“said the Norwegian politician.
This is not the first time that Macron has made inflammatory statements in which he seems to forget that he is the president of a country and behaves more like an analyst who thinks out loud and has no government responsibility. For example, he already did it when he assured that NATO was “brain dead”. However, a very sensitive issue was raised on this occasion, as the military alliance has always insisted that the Allies’ role is limited to supporting Ukraine and that this should not be interpreted as a direct war between NATO and Moscow. A possibility that would trigger a third world war against a Vladimir Putin who has the nuclear button in his possession.
For this reason, not only the sending of ground troops is taboo for NATO, but also other options such as a no-fly zone, which Ukraine repeatedly called for at the beginning of the war, to prevent the intrusion of Russian aircraft and missiles. and even the long-range missiles that Berlin does not want to send to Kiev for fear of a conflict spiraling out of control.
When In November 2022, a rocket hit Poland, killing two people, the Allies quickly called for calm and denied the Russian origin of the missile in a deliberate attack, since a direct offensive against an Allied country would have triggered a reaction from the entire organization. The fear that this conflict could expand and become a war between the Allies and Russia is also the main reason for the military organization refuse to allow Ukraine to join NATO as long as the war continues.
That’s why Macron’s words provoked such unanimous rejection. Also from the alliance countries that are closest to Russia and invest the most in defense. The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tuskhas assured that his country is “not considering sending troops from its army to Ukraine” and warned that “we should not speculate about it,” while calling on the rest of the allies to spend more on defense to intimidate Putin .
His counterpart from the Czech Republic, Petr FialaHe also denied his country’s intentions to send soldiers and, on the contrary, advocated “further developing the already open paths of assistance against aggression so that Ukrainians can defend themselves and the goals of the Putin regime are not achieved.” The United Kingdom, Italy and Belgium also denied that they plan to send ground troops to the country invaded by Putin.
An attack in 2025?
The truth is that these statements from Macron come at a time of pessimism due to the bad news on the battlefield, while in recent months we have witnessed a war rhetoric not seen since the end of communism. The Danish Defense Minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, has assured that Putin could attack a NATO country in three or five years and has called for strengthening air defense. Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer also called on European countries to prepare for war and consider conscription in the next two decades. According to documents leaked to the Bild newspaper in mid-January, Germany is preparing for Putin’s offensive on NATO’s eastern flank in the summer of 2025. There is a war in Ukraine. The Belgian Defense Minister, Ludivine Dedonder, has also called on its citizens to become reservists. “Everyone must understand that war in Europe is possible, but also that it will not necessarily happen.And”.
