“Nothing should be excluded,” says Emmanuel Macron on sending Western troops in the future

“There is no consensus today to send ground troops in an official, assumed and endorsed manner. But dynamically, nothing must be excluded,” underlined the Head of State on Monday evening, after a conference in support of Ukraine.

Sending Western ground troops to Ukraine must not “be excluded” in the future, Emmanuel Macron said on Monday February 26, nevertheless believing that there was no “no consensus” at this stage on this hypothesis. “There is no consensus today to send ground troops in an official, assumed and endorsed manner. But dynamically, nothing must be excluded. We will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot can’t win this war.”declared the French president during a press conference at the Elysée, following an international conference in support of Ukraine.

The Head of State did not wish to say more about France’s position on this issue, citing a “strategic ambiguity that I assume”. This option had previously never been mentioned by France. Questioned at the end of the meeting at the Elysée, the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, declared that this question of sending ground troops had not been on the agenda.

“A lot of people who say ‘Never, never’ today were the same people who said ‘Never tanks, never planes, never long-range missiles’ two years ago.”continued Emmanuel Macron. “Let us have the humility to note that we have often been six to twelve months late. This was the objective of this evening’s discussion: everything is possible if it is useful to achieve our objective”. The French president nevertheless recalled that Ukraine’s allies were not “not at war with the Russian people”but they didn’t want “just don’t let them win in Ukraine”.

A coalition to send medium and long range missiles

Around twenty heads of state and government, mainly European, met on Monday at the initiative of Emmanuel Macron in Paris, in order to reaffirm their support for kyiv. The Head of State calls on Europe to “collective burst” against Russia, at a time when American support, crucial for kyiv, is still blocked in Congress. “The defeat of Russia is essential for security and stability in Europe,” insisted the president, calling for “do more together and faster” to help kyiv against Moscow.

Emmanuel Macron thus announced the creation of a new coalition dedicated to the delivery of medium and long-range missiles, against a backdrop of Ukrainian concerns about the volume and delivery schedule of the munitions already planned.

The French president listed in parallel five “categories of actions” with consensus: cyber-defensive; co-production of arms, military capabilities and munitions in Ukraine; the defense of countries directly threatened by the offensive in Ukraine, such as Moldova; there “ability to support Ukraine on its border with Belarus with non-military forces” and mine clearance operations.