“Today, the priority is diplomacy but we are not naive and we are preparing” to a conflict, said Friday, February 18 on franceinfo the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, about the Ukrainian crisis. “NATO’s response is a response that consists first of all in ensuring the protection of the countries [qui en sont membres] who are closest to this zone of tension in which we are”she detailed. “The very job of the military is to prepare and deal with all eventualities, so the work is done so that this protection can be ensured”she pointed out.
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“As part of NATO’s reinforced presence on the eastern flank of Europe”France has “a force of several hundred men in Estonia, in a device which is commanded by the British”she recalled, and “the President of the Republic indicated that he was available, if such was the decision, to consider a deployment elsewhere in a more southern part”namely “in Romania”, a country bordering Ukraine and a member of NATO.
“All the elements are in place for, if the decision was made by the president [russe] Putin to invade Ukraine militarily, this invasion is possible”also analyzed Florence Parly, who points out that“we can’t say anything more, because we don’t know if it was taken or not, and what it is”. “We see the same things as all our partners, we see important forces that have gathered, that are ready to intervene”she added.
“Today, because the President of the Republic, the President of the United States and the Europeans, everyone has set out to activate channels for dialogue, for discussion with President Putin, everything must continue to be done until the last breath to convince the Russian president that the military way is definitely not the right one”she insisted.