French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Ukraine’s allies not to be “cowards” in supporting the country to fight off the Russian invasion.
He added that he “fully stood behind” controversial remarks made last week not ruling out the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine, which sent a shock wave around Europe.
“We are surely approaching a moment for Europe in which it will be necessary not to be cowards,” Macron said on a visit to the Czech Republic, which is pushing a plan to buy weapons outside Europe for Ukraine.
Photo: CTK via AP
Speaking later after meeting Czech President Petr Pavel, he asked: “Is this or is it not our war? Can we look away in the belief that we can let things run their course?”
“I don’t believe so, and therefore I called for a strategic surge and I fully stand behind that,” Macron said.
Most of Macron’s European allies said they would not send troops to Ukraine after his comments on Monday last week.
The White House on Tuesday said that Ukraine had never sought Western troops.
Ukrainian “President Zelenskiy isn’t asking for that, he’s just asking for the tools and capabilities. He’s never asked for foreign troops to fight for his country,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.
German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said Macron’s quotes were not helpful.
“We don’t need really, from my perspective at least, discussions about boots on the ground or having more courage or less courage,” Pistorius told a news conference in Stockholm after meeting with Swedish Minister of Defense Pal Jonson.
“This is something which does not really help solve the issues we have when it comes to helping Ukraine,” he added.
Russian news agencies quoted Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Naryshkin as telling a Russian television interviewer that “this shows the high degree of irresponsibility of Europe’s leaders today, in this case the president of France.”
“It is more and more rare that they demonstrate any common sense at all, but these statements are extremely dangerous. They are already taking us to the brink of nuclear war,” he said.
French officials have said that Western forces could be sent to back operations such as demining rather than fighting Russian forces.
“We want no escalation, we’ve never been belligerent,” Macron said on Tuesday.
Pavel, a former NATO general, agreed Ukraine’s allies should seek “new ways” to help, adding that the West would not cross “the imaginary red line” by getting involved in combat operations.
He suggested NATO countries could for instance train Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine, which would be “no violation of international rules.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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