Paris
CNN
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French President Emmanuel Macron has openly talked about the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine to help Kiev win its war against Russia, plunging Europe into the largest ground war since World War II. there's a possibility that.
Although the chances of Western democracies taking action on Ukraine remain remote, Macron's comments after the summit expressing support for Ukraine prompted a hawkish reaction from the Kremlin, prompting European leaders to backtrack. is what happened. A NATO official told CNN the alliance has “no plans” to send combat troops to Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who attended the meeting in Paris on Monday, said there was good debate and detailed discussion on the topic, but that participants at the summit were “unanimous” against sending in troops. said.
Macron told a news conference that he and the other 21 European leaders present had not agreed on sending troops, but that the prospects were openly discussed.
“Nothing should be ruled out,” he said. “We will do everything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war.”
But on Tuesday, a number of European officials voiced opposition to such a plan. They included more ardent supporters of Ukraine from Britain, Poland, Spain and Italy, as well as officials from Hungary and Slovakia, whose leaders have been criticized as pro-Russian.
“What was agreed between us and with each other from the beginning will also apply in the future, namely that there will be no ground troops or soldiers sent to Ukrainian soil from European or NATO countries,” Scholz said. .
However, President Macron announced the creation of a new coalition to supply medium-range and long-range missiles to Ukraine.
“We are at a critical moment when we need to take the lead in this conflict,” President Macron said.
With $60 billion worth of U.S. funding for Ukraine being withheld by Republicans in Congress, the burden has shifted to Europe to help arm Ukraine as it tries to fend off resurgent Russian forces.
Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines say they are already running low on ammunition and are suffering casualties on the battlefield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN in a recent interview that “millions” of people could die if the US fails to provide his country with more aid.
The European Union has already pledged more than $150 billion in aid to Ukraine, but sending in troops would be a drastic step that would have been unthinkable when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion two years ago. Ta.
Macron noted that Western democracies are gradually increasing their support to levels that were unthinkable when the war began. He highlighted the example of Germany, which provided Kiev with helmets and sleeping bags early in the conflict, and said further steps now need to be taken to supply the country with missiles and tanks.
“The people who said 'no' today are the same people who said no to airplanes, long-range missiles, and trucks. They said that two years ago,” he said. said. “We have to be humble and realize that we have always been six to eight months behind.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that such a deployment in Ukraine would lead to a conflict between the West and Russia.
“In this case, we need to talk not about the possibility of conflict, but about the necessity of conflict,” Peskov said. “These countries also have to evaluate and recognize this and ask themselves whether this is in their interest and whether it is in the interest of their people.”
Kremlin officials have made similar comments in the past. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last year that the United States, Britain and many other countries were “waging war” against Russia and were committing hostile acts against Russia by providing aid to Ukraine.
By hosting Monday's summit and committing to such a strong defense of Ukraine, President Macron will once again use the symbolism of a united Europe as the continent prepares for former US President Donald Trump's possible second term. He seems to be trying to assert his position as a leader. .
Given Trump's antipathy toward NATO and transactional view of the alliance, leaders like Macron have emphasized that Europe must shoulder the burden of defending itself from future Russian aggression. .
At the outset of the summit, President Macron warned that Russia was likely to attack beyond Ukraine in the coming years, threatening Europe's collective security.
“This is Europe's war,” President Macron said. “It's our soil, it's our continent.”
President Macron also signaled that he was willing to abandon his long-standing opposition to buying weapons from outside the EU for Ukraine. The French president supports the EU initiative known as “strategic autonomy” (a bureaucratic term referring to a set of policies aimed at reducing Europe's dependence on the United States) and other international partners in foreign and defense matters. He was against purchasing weapons outside the area for the purpose of doing so. policy.
04:33 – Source: CNN
Why Ukraine's secret weapon against Russia is becoming difficult to use
President Macron's apparent shift towards acquiring non-EU weapons may seem at odds with Europe's drive towards self-sufficiency, but it is rather a sign of how seriously Europe's arms stockpiles have been hit by the Ukraine war. It is highly likely that this reflects whether the
Officials also warned a year ago that countries were desperately short of a wide range of weapons due to supplies to Ukraine.
The need to do this as soon as possible means that it is simply not practical to buy only within the EU. The decline in defense spending across the region since the end of the Cold War has led weapons manufacturers to scale back their capacity to produce such weapons, and rebuilding the industry will not happen overnight. This means Europe needs to “not just replenish its own cupboard, but build a new one and fill it,” one European official told CNN last week.
But Macron's change of heart does not necessarily mean he is leaving strategic autonomy. Although it remains a long-term goal, rearmament of Kiev is necessary in the short term.
There is also no precise end point to strategic autonomy, and many European officials are wondering what exactly the United States' role is in European security, and to what extent NATO, rather than the EU, is an intermediary within it. It is also worth noting that they have changed their minds about what they should do.
But by arranging a meeting where this new short-term approach was agreed, Mr Macron can still claim to be at the forefront of reinforcing Europe's new, more active and independent foreign policy.
Still, Macron's comments are controversial even within France. On Tuesday, various opposition politicians criticized the comments, saying France's deployment amounted to belligerence, but Defense Minister Sébastien Lecorne insisted that “saying we won't rule anything out is neither weak nor escalatory.”
Meanwhile, both the US State Department and the Pentagon reiterated that President Joe Biden has ruled out sending US troops to fight in Ukraine.
“Certainly every country is free to speak out in its own interests, but in addition to the president making clear that the United States will not send troops to fight in Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General “We have also ruled out the participation of NATO forces.” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller attended the press conference.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder added, “To be clear, there are no plans to send U.S. military personnel to fight in Ukraine.”
CNN's Anna Chernova and Chris Stern; Radina Zygova and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report