French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated that he does not rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine. On Saturday March 16 he told 'Le Parisien' that Western ground operations in Ukraine could be necessary “at some point.” This suggestion has sparked controversy within NATO, where the majority of countries have ruled out this possibility.
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Emmanuel Macron persists and reaffirms. The French president reiterated, in an interview published on the afternoon of Saturday, March 16 in Le Parisianthat Western ground operations in Ukraine may be necessary “at some point.”
“Perhaps at some point – I don't want it, I won't take the initiative – it will be necessary to carry out operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” he said. She conducted this interview on Friday, upon her return from Berlin, where she met with the leaders of Germany and Poland.
“France's strength is that we can do it,” he added.
“There has never been a disagreement between the chancellor and me”
In the German capital, Emmanuel Macron met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday in a show of unity between the three countries.
The repeated statements by Emmanuel Macron, who refuses to exclude the sending of ground troops to Ukraine from the table, have sown differences between the allies in Paris, with Germany at the head, and raised the almost unanimous disapproval of the opposition in France.
On February 26, Macron led a conference of European leaders in Paris in support of kyiv, where he indicated that he did not rule out sending troops from Western allies to Ukrainian territory and announced a coalition for the delivery of missiles to the Ukrainian Army.
However, a day later, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “No European or NATO soldiers will be sent to Ukraine.”
“What was agreed between us from the beginning also applies to the future. That is, there will be no ground troops or soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO states,” Scholz stressed.
However, in his interview with Le Parisien, the president rules out any disagreement with Germany on this issue. “I wanted to come to Germany very quickly so as not to create a debate about strategic differences that could exist: they do not exist,” he explains.
“There has never been any disagreement between the chancellor and me. We have very common views on the objectives and the situation. What is different is the way they are translated.”
“Germany has a strategic culture of great caution, non-intervention, and stays away from nuclear energy,” he explains. “A very different model from that of France, which has nuclear weapons and has maintained and strengthened a professional army,” she said again.
Complementarity of Franco-German aid to Ukraine
The French president added that he gave up a trip to kyiv to travel to Berlin on Friday and meet with Olaf Scholz and Donald Tusk there.
He assured that he would meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine before mid-March, a trip that had already been scheduled once for February and then was postponed. He now says that his visit will take place in the coming weeks.
It also highlights the complementarities of aid that France and Germany can provide.
“Germany spends more than France, it has more budget space, that's lucky. France can do things that Germany can't,” he told Le Parisien, before putting things into perspective about Russia's power.
“We must not be intimidated, we are not facing a great power. Russia is a medium power with nuclear weapons, but whose GDP is much lower than that of the Europeans, lower than that of Germany and France,” he stated.
With AFP
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