The US-led NATO and EU countries’ goal of achieving a strategic defeat of Russia through financial and military aid to Kiev is becoming increasingly unattainable, and the West is signaling that the further it moves away from this goal, the closer it gets to a new world war.
While some NATO and EU countries are increasingly showing their intention to intervene in the conflict in Ukraine, Macron, who made a statement shortly after Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s predictions that ‘some EU and NATO countries may send troops to Ukraine’, admitted that the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine was being discussed.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the European leaders gathered in support of Ukraine at the Elysee Palace in the capital Paris, also emphasized that defeating Russia is necessary for the benefit of Europe, “The defeat of Russia is necessary for security and stability in Europe,” he said at a press conference.
The range of the missiles is getting longer
At the same press conference, Macron said that the EU had agreed to create a ‘new coalition for deeper strikes’ by supplying Ukraine with medium and long-range missiles.
He also emphasized that France will do everything to ensure that Russia ‘does not win this war’, adding that Western leaders are discussing the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, but no consensus has yet been reached.
Not content with mere statements, Macron signed a bilateral agreement on Ukraine’s security guarantees with Ukrainian President Zelensky in Paris on February 17.
“The security agreement between Paris and Kiev was signed for a period of 10 years and will remain in force until Ukraine becomes a member of NATO,” Macron said at the time.
Following President Macron’s statements, which could be described as ‘a harbinger of war with Russia’, France’s young prime minister Gabriel Attal, speaking to RTL radio channel, did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, underlining that Paris would ‘never come to terms’ with Russia’s victory.
Asked whether French troops could be sent to Ukraine, Attal replied: “Nothing can be ruled out when there is a war going on at the doorstep of the EU.”
Attal added that France “cannot accept the possibility that Russia could win at some point”.
Scholz against the idea of ‘renewed’ war with Russia
Germany, known as the country that provides the most financial and military aid to Ukraine after the US, is angry that other EU countries are not as generous as it is.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was sitting next to Macron at the ‘Support Ukraine’ meeting in Paris, expressed his discontent with the imbalance in aid and said that German experts are needed to control the German-made long-range Taurus cruise missiles and that they will not send them to Ukraine to prevent conflict with Russia.
“At no point or place should we be associated with the targets reached by this system,” Scholz said, stressing that German experts will be needed to steer the Taurus long-range missile, but that Germany continues to act on the principle that none of its troops will set foot on Ukrainian territory.
‘Macron’s statement is a serious step towards starting a world war’
While the reactions from Europe and Russia to Macron’s harsh statements that foreshadowed World War III were not delayed, Florian Philippot, the leader of the opposition Patriotic Party in France, said that Macron’s statements that Russia could attack Europe aimed to drag the French into a world war.
In a post on social media platform X, Philippot said French leader Macron’s remarks were “What happened? What does this mean? Are we at war? World War III?! This is obviously the goal,” Philippot said.
For his part, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the left-wing LFI (France Without Fronts), called French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks about ‘the possibility of sending EU troops to Ukraine and starting a war against Russia’ insane:
Sending troops to Ukraine would make us a party to the conflict. A war against Russia would be madness. This verbal belligerence of one nuclear power against another major nuclear power is irresponsible in itself.
A day earlier, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said after the Security Council meeting that EU and NATO countries could send military personnel to Ukraine.
“For me, today’s meeting is a confirmation of the failure of the Western strategy in Ukraine,” Fico said in a press release. “But I want to be constructively prepared, even though the topics we discussed make my skin crawl. It follows from these theses that a group of NATO and EU countries are considering the option of sending troops to Ukraine on the basis of bilateral agreements.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson agreed with Fico that Slovakia would not send troops to Ukraine and said that Sweden would not send troops to Ukraine.
Kristersson said, “At the moment, Sweden is busy sending advanced weapons of various kinds to Ukraine, as many other countries are doing. Ukraine does not need this (sending troops). This is not an issue for us yet,” Kristersson said.
The first reactions from Russia to Macron’s remarks were similar
Russia has begun to respond to the French leader’s remarks at a meeting in support of Ukraine.
Sergey Tsekov, a senator in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, and a member of the international security committee, told Sputnik that with these statements Macron has taken a serious step towards starting a world war.
Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the delegation representing Russia at the military security and arms control talks in Vienna, told Sputnik that the possibility of Western countries sending troops to Ukraine would increase the risk of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.
“We have repeatedly warned the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, which are using Ukraine as a ‘battering ram’ against our country, about the danger of their direct participation in hostilities against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” Gavrilov emphasized.
Dmitry Belik, a deputy of the Russian State Duma in Sevastopol, said that a group of NATO countries decided to conspire to legitimize the presence of their armies in Ukraine.
“There is nothing new in Fico’s statement. NATO military personnel are already in Ukraine, but only as mercenaries. What the Slovak Prime Minister is talking about is a conspiracy of some countries to legitimize the presence of their military personnel in Ukraine. Ukrainian territory and Fico does not want to take part in this conspiracy.”
Belik underlined that Fico is one of the few Western leaders who is ready to fight for the interests of his country even if his political career is in jeopardy: “Old Europe is no longer interested in this conflict. No one believes in Ukraine’s victory, just as no one believes in Russia’s defeat, and there is no great desire to give money to this obviously hopeless cause.”
At that meeting, Macron announced that Ukraine’s Western allies had joined a new coalition to supply Kiev with long-range missiles, saying that France would do everything to ensure that Russia ‘does not win this war’.
Stating that the new coalition will focus on the supply of long-range missiles with deeper strikes, the French leader recalled that there are currently 8 coalitions in Europe with the participation of different countries to facilitate the delivery of weapons to Kiev, including ammunition, artillery and air defense systems.
