WASHINGTON, US
The United States and key European allies said on Tuesday they had no plans to send ground troops to Ukraine, after France hinted at the possibility, and the Kremlin warned that any such move would inevitably lead to conflict between Russia and NATO.
French President Emmanuel
Macron had said on Monday that Western allies should exclude no options in
seeking to avert a Russian victory in Ukraine, though he stressed there was no
consensus at this stage.
His comments, made at a
hastily convened meeting of European leaders in Paris on ways to boost flagging
support for Kyiv, come amid battlefield gains by Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s forces in eastern Ukraine as well as growing shortages of ammunition
and manpower on the Ukrainian side.
However, Germany, Britain,
Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic distanced themselves from any suggestion
they might commit ground troops to the Ukraine war, now in its third year.
“…There will be no ground
troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO
states,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.
German Defence Minister Boris
Pistorius was equally adamant.
“Boots on the ground is not an
option for Germany,” Pistorius told reporters during a visit to Vienna.
The White House later
reiterated that it too had no plan to send ground troops, instead urging U.S.
lawmakers to approve a stalled security aid bill that would ensure Ukrainian
troops got the weapons and ammunition needed to continue their fight.
Seeking to clarify Macron’s
remarks, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on Tuesday the
president had in mind sending troops for specific tasks such as helping on mine
clearance, production of weapons on site, and cyberdefence.
“(This) could require a
(military) presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of
fighting,” Sejourne told French lawmakers.
Scholz did say that European
leaders now appeared willing after Monday’s talks to procure weapons from
countries outside Europe as a way of speeding up military aid to Ukraine.
Germany has become the second
biggest supplier of military aid to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-blown
invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, but is extremely wary of steps that would
draw the NATO alliance into direct conflict with Russia.
The Kremlin issued a swift
warning about what was at stake.
“The very fact of discussing
the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries
is a very important new element,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters,
commenting on Macron’s remarks.
Asked about the risks if NATO
members did deploy troops to fight in Ukraine, Peskov said: “In that case, we
would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a
direct conflict).”
Russia and the United States –
the big power behind NATO – have the world’s largest arsenals of nuclear
weapons. President Joe Biden has cautioned that a conflict between Russia and
NATO could trigger World War Three.
The possibility in particular
of German troops being deployed to ex-Soviet territory is hugely sensitive for
Russia, whose fierce resistance to Hitler’s invasion during World War Two is an
integral part of national identity. Putin has even cast Russia’s actions in
Ukraine as a struggle against “Nazis”, a stance Kyiv and the West dismiss as
cynical and absurd.
A senior Ukrainian official
welcomed Macron’s decision to raise the possibility of sending Western troops
to his country.
“This shows, firstly, an
absolute awareness of the risks posed to Europe by a militaristic, aggressive
Russia,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a written
comment on Macron’s statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy, rattled by the resistance of some U.S. Republicans to providing more
aid for Kyiv, has stepped up his lobbying of European governments for more
artillery shells and longer-range weapons.
The Czech Republic this month
announced plans, backed by Canada, Denmark and others, to finance the rapid
purchase of hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries to
dispatch to Ukraine.
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