Meeting in France discussed sending EU and NATO troops to Ukraine. What do foreign leaders say about this?
During the meeting held on February 26 in Paris, the heads of state and government considered the proposal to send military forces from the EU and NATO to Ukraine. Here is how the leaders reacted to this proposal.
For the first time, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that this topic was discussed at a meeting in Paris. At a press conference following the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that the countries had discussed sending their troops to Ukraine. However, he noted that the states have not yet reached a consensus on this issue.
“But we cannot rule anything out. We will do everything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war,” Macron said. According to him, many people who are now saying “never” to sending troops are the same people who said “never” to sending tanks, planes and long-range weapons two years ago.
“So everything is possible if it is necessary to achieve our goal,” the French president said.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also said this in an interview with Ouest France: “We will not be able to accept that Russia will win this war […] We have been supporting Ukraine from day one. And we will continue to support Ukrainians.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda called the discussion on the deployment of EU and NATO troops to Ukraine the “hottest” of all at the meeting in Paris. But the countries reached “absolutely no agreement” on this and showed no enthusiasm, Duda said in an interview with Polskie Radio 24. Poland's Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk said the country has no “project or idea” to send its military to Ukraine, Wprost quoted him as saying.
At the same time, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that this issue is “not relevant at all” for Sweden, SVT writes. According to him, in any case, the decision will be up to Sweden.
Reuters writes that Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala also said that his country is not going to send its soldiers to Ukraine and that “no one should worry about it.”
Meanwhile, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said that Hungary does not want to send not only its troops but also weapons to Ukraine: “Hungary's position is clear and firm. […] The war should not be deepened or expanded, but stopped.”
At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Kremlin had taken note of Macron's statement about the possible deployment of Western troops to Ukraine, as quoted by the Russian propaganda agency TASS. According to Peskov, this “threatens to involve Western countries in a ‘hot conflict’”. He also added that in this case, a direct military conflict between NATO and Russia would be “inevitable”.
What does NATO say?
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Associated Press that the Alliance has no plans to send troops to Ukraine either.
“NATO Allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We have been doing this since 2014 and stepped up after the full-scale invasion. But there are no plans to deploy NATO troops to Ukraine,” he said.
The White House official also emphasized that the United States has no plans to send troops to Ukraine.
How the Ukrainian government is reacting
In an interview with Reuters, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, said he welcomed discussions about the deployment of European troops. “This shows an absolute awareness of the risks posed to Europe by militaristic aggressive Russia,” he said.
More about the meeting in Paris
Yesterday, on February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron initiated a meeting of heads of state and government supporting Ukraine in Paris. “Our message will be to demonstrate our determination to do everything necessary to defeat Russia. We are not fatalists, we are not in a doom mode. We are determined,” Macron explained.
During the meeting, the allies agreed to create a coalition of long-range weapons for Ukraine, which will include medium- and long-range missiles and bombs.
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