French president Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed his earlier statements about the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine in a recent interview with the Economist, published on Thursday, May 2nd.
According to the president, were Russia to push further into Ukraine, the move would be “legitimately” considered in Europe if requested by Kyiv.
“Absolutely,” Macron replied after he was asked whether he still stands by the idea of sending troops, as he stated earlier this year, sending shockwaves around the European capitals. “I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out.”
Such a deployment would likely lead to a serious widening of the conflict.
Analysts have predicted for weeks that Russia may be preparing for a massive new offensive that Ukraine might not be able to fend off due to severe manpower shortages.
Russia’s surprising recent gains in Eastern Ukraine after the fall of Avdiivka also imply that Ukrainian frontlines may be on the verge of collapsing in other areas.
“If Russia decided to go further, we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question” of sending Western troops, Macron said, adding that he considers his refusal to rule out a decision like that as a “strategic wake-up call for [his] counterparts.”
“I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine,” the president continued. “If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighboring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, and the others?”
Of course, not all European governments are so enthusiastic about crossing perhaps Moscow’s most serious red line and further escalating the conflict.
“Remember, after the war started, Western European politicians were talking about supplying only helmets and quilts to the Ukrainian army. Then came the weapons, then the tanks, the anti-aircraft missiles, and then the warplanes, to the point where the French president is now fantasizing about sending ground troops to Ukraine,” Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó said a few days ago.
According to Szijjártó, the “war frenzy” that took control of the Western European discourse might even lead to a nuclear exchange, and the only way to stop it is to start voting for pro-peace parties in the European parliamentary and national elections.
