NATO may deploy troops to assist Ukraine, but consensus is lacking - Macron
Photo: French President Emmanuel Macron (Getty Images)
It is not ruled out that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will deploy troops to assist Ukraine. However, consensus on this matter is currently lacking, says the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, during the press conference after the Conference in support of Ukraine.
"The deployment of Western troops in the future cannot be ruled out, but today there is no consensus on the official, adopted, and approved dispatch of troops to the region," Macron said.
He also added that Russia has taken an aggressive position not only against Ukraine but also "against us overall."
"We have heard President Zelenskyy's request for an increase in our support, and we are convinced that defeating Russia is crucial for the security and stability of Europe," the French leader added.
At the same time, the president declined to detail France's position on this issue, citing "strategic ambiguity, which I accept."
"I absolutely did not say that France does not support. I will not remove the ambiguity from today's debates by naming names. I am saying that it was mentioned among the options," he noted.
France has never made such statements before. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, assured that the question of sending ground troops to Ukraine was not on the agenda for the meeting at the Elysée Palace.
However, Macron did not rule out providing assistance in the future, drawing parallels with supplying our country with weapons.
"Many people who say 'Never, never' today were the same people who two years ago said 'no tanks, no planes, no long-range missiles.' Let's be humble enough to acknowledge that we often lag behind the schedule by six to twelve months. That was the purpose of today's discussion: everything is possible if it is useful for achieving our goal," explained the French leader.
Macron also emphasized that Ukraine's allies "are not fighting against the Russian people," but they "simply do not want to allow Putin to win in Ukraine."
Conference on aid to Ukraine
On Monday, February 26, a working meeting of around 20 European leaders took place at the Elysée Palace in Paris. The conference participants decided to counter the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is inevitably winning the war, which has been ongoing for the third year.
It was previously reported that the President of France invited European leaders to Paris to discuss proposals for assistance to war-ravaged Ukraine.
Additionally, Macron stated that European leaders must prepare for a possible Russian attack in the coming years.
Recently, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine was not negotiating with its partners regarding the deployment of their armies in the war against Russia.
