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The stationing of NATO troops in Ukraine was once a fantasy for Macron. Now the proposal seems to be finding supporters in Europe.
Kiev/Paris – The French President’s idea of NATO ground troops in Ukraine seemed like a pipe dream just a few months ago, but now the proposal is gaining increasing support among the people NATO-Find partners. This was said by a spokesman for the President’s party Emmanuel Macron in conversation with the US portal Newsweek.
No “isolated position for France”: Some NATO states open to Ukraine debate
The spit must be against Wladimir Putin should finally be reversed, said French foreign policy expert Benjamin Haddad last week on the sidelines of the Lennart Meri conference in Estonia. He repeated Newsweek According to Macron’s proposal, NATO troops in the Ukraine to station them, but not to allow them to carry out combat missions. While the idea was quickly rejected by the USA, according to Haddad, it is finding more and more supporters in Europe. The momentum is “clearly” increasing, he said.
This shows that the move is not an “isolated position by France”, as initially presented. Haddad cited Czech President Petr Pavel, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, and Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski as examples his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis. They all recently expressed support for the proposal – or at least appeared open to a debate.
Ukraine war: French foreign policy expert calls for “creative” solutions from NATO states
“This is important because these countries are in the front row,” Haddad continued. “And these are countries that distrusted Paris and Berlin for a long time.” In fact, if the Baltic States were to be expanded Ukraine War particularly at risk. Apart from the weekly threatening gestures from Moscow, the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad also lies between Lithuania and Poland. A former NATO general recently advised Russia In the event of war, to attack over the eastern flank and to “neutralize” Kaliningrad.
“We spend too much time worrying about escalation, when Russia is the country that is escalating,” said Haddad, referring to European concerns. The French politician called on the West to think about how to support Kyiv in a “creative” way. He made a concrete suggestion:
“At the moment, many Ukrainian troops are stationed on the border with Belarus to prevent a possible invasion from the north,” he said. “Western forces could be deployed along the border as a ‘tripwire’ – just like you have troops in the Baltic states or Poland – to free some of these Ukrainian troops so that they can go to the front.” But it is clear that NATO would be needed for this. “No country can do this alone,” said Haddad.
Russia has been claiming for months that it is waging a war against the “collective West”
Russia has warned NATO states – more or less since the outbreak of the Ukraine war – against intervention and has threatened several times that certain arms deliveries would cross “red lines”. But Putin has not yet reacted – despite much-discussed deliveries of tanks. However, Moscow is now propagating that a US-led war is being waged against the “collective West” in Ukraine.
When asked about the possible deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in May that direct intervention “potentially carries enormous risks.” Such “extremely difficult provocations” are being observed very closely. And in fact it didn’t take long for a reaction: on Tuesday (May 21st) Russia announced a nuclear weapons exercise near Ukraine. This was a “response to provocative statements and threats from certain Western representatives,” explained the Russian Defense Ministry. The “readiness” of “non-strategic nuclear weapons” will be tested to ensure the “territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state”.
Haddad calls the development “worrying for some time”. We see a Russia “that is increasing its aggression, that has converted its industry to a complete war economy”. In the West, both in Europe and in the United States, however, we are “lagging behind in our response”. (nak)
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