February 27, 2024
The little French rascal is leaning over his skis a bit:
Sending Western troops to Ukraine “cannot be ruled out," French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday after hosting a conference in Paris where European leaders discussed the prospect.There was “no agreement this evening to officially send troops onto the ground but we cannot exclude anything,” he told reporters.
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“We will do anything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war,” Macron said. “And I say this with determination, but also with a collective humility that we need to have, in the light of the last two years."
After two years of following a losing U.S. strategy against Russia one would expect a little more humility than that.
None of Macron's colleagues agreed with him:
Germany, Britain and other European countries said on Tuesday they had no plans to send ground troops to Ukraine, after France hinted at the possibility, and the Kremlin warned that any such move would inevitably lead to conflict between Russia and Nato.French President Emmanuel Macron had said on Monday that Western allies should exclude no options in seeking to avert a Russian victory in Ukraine, though he stressed there was no consensus at this stage.
“Nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win,” Macron told reporters at a hastily convened gathering of European leaders in Paris to mull how to bolster support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
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However, Germany, Britain, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic distanced themselves on Tuesday from any suggestion they might commit ground troops to the Ukraine war, now in its third year.“ … There will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or Nato states,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on the sidelines of an event.
The Russian government declared that any positioning of western troops in Ukraine would inevitably lead to a larger war:
A direct military conflict between NATO and Russia will be inevitable if Western troops are sent to Ukraine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters."In that case, it’s not going to be about probability, but inevitability - that's how we assess it," he said, when asked how the Kremlin assesses the probability of a direct conflict between NATO and Russia in the event that Western troops are sent to Ukraine.
Peskov also said NATO countries "should also assess" the consequences of such actions and be aware of them. They should "ask themselves whether this corresponds to their interests, and most importantly, to the interests of the citizens of their countries," Peskov said.
The U.S. will not allow for a NATO escalation against Russia. It is already distancing itself from the Ukraine war.
The Europeans are just, like always, late to recognize that they are going to be left to hold the tar baby.
Macron may just be peeved a bit. A month ago a Russian air strike killed a number of foreign 'mercenaries' in Ukraine:
Russia said on Wednesday its forces had carried out a precision strike a day earlier on a building housing "foreign fighters" in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv.The defence ministry said the fighters were mostly French mercenaries and the building was destroyed, with more than 60 people killed. It did not provide evidence, and Reuters could not verify the claims.
France has denied that it had sent 'mercenaries' to Ukraine:
France has denied Russia’s claim that there were French mercenaries in Ukraine after Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its troops had killed “foreign fighters” earlier this week.
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“France has no mercenaries, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere, unlike certain others,” it added.
However, seven month back France admitted that at least some 320 French fighters had gone to Ukraine.
There is also this curious phenomenon of high tech weapon specialists leaving their services to shortly thereafter turn up as humanitarian workers for this or that 'civil' agency in Ukraine:
France says Russia will have to answer for the deaths of two French nationals killed in a drone attack in the Kherson region of Ukraine as they performed humanitarian duties.Kherson regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote in a post on Telegram that the two French nationals were killed, and three other foreigners injured in the attack in Beryslav, a town just outside the southern city of Kherson, on February 1.
Prokudin did not say which humanitarian group the casualties worked for.
"Russian barbarity has targeted civilians in Ukraine," French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"Russia will have to answer for its crimes," he added.
Just days later Stephane Sejourne said:
France's foreign minister on Tuesday sought to clarify comments made by President Emmanuel Macron that Paris could send troops to Ukraine for specific needs, but not to fight in the war against Russia."We must consider new actions to support Ukraine. These must respond to very specific needs, I am thinking in particular of mine clearance, cyberdefence, the production of weapons on site, on Ukrainian territory," Stephane Sejourne told lawmakers.
"Some of its actions could require a presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of fighting. Nothing should be ruled out. This was and still is the position today of the president of the Republic."
Any presence of French troops in Ukraine, for whatever reason, is of course a direct French participation in the war against Russia. It will naturally be responded to by the appropriate means.
Posted by b on February 27, 2024 at 16:29 UTC | Permalink