French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with The Economist published on Thursday, reaffirmed that he hasn’t ruled out sending troops to Ukraine. He emphasized that such a decision would arise “legitimately” if Russia breached Ukrainian front lines and if Kyiv requested assistance.
The interview followed a keynote speech he delivered last week, where he declared Europe to be “mortal” and warned of its potential demise, partly due to the threat posed by Russian aggression following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“I’m not ruling anything out because we are facing an adversary who does not rule anything out,” Macron said, referring to his previous comments that didn’t exclude the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine. His earlier remarks had caused significant concern across Europe.
Some analysts believe that Russia could be on the verge of launching a major new offensive in Ukraine.
Macron asserted that if Russia decided to advance further, all nations would inevitably have to consider the possibility of deploying troops, describing his stance as a “strategic wake-up call for my counterparts.”
He portrayed Russia as “a regional destabilizing power” and “a threat to European security.”
“I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine,” Macron stated. “If Russia wins in Ukraine, Europe will have no security.”
“Who can believe that Russia will stop there? What security will exist for neighboring countries like Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, and others?” he questioned.
With AFP
