(TheRedAlertNews.com) – In a potentially giant escalation of the war in Ukraine, which Putin’s Russia started in a bid to resurrect the former Soviet empire more than two years ago, Emmanuel Macron, the leader of US NATO ally France, has stressed that he might send French ground forces into the fray “at some point.”
French President Macron, in a recent interview made public on Saturday, indicated that the involvement of Western forces on Ukrainian soil might become necessary in the future.
The interview was published after his recent meeting with the leaders of Germany and Poland, Olaf Scholz and Donald Tusk, but was conducted before that.
Previously, Macron had refused to dismisse the idea of deploying troops to Ukraine, a stance that elicited a sharp rebuke from Germany and other European nations.
France, Germany and Poland, which borders on both Ukraine and Russia, are US allies in the 32-nation NATO alliance.
Nevertheless, Macron has maintained his stance, emphasizing that the Western allies would not be the ones to initiate action.
“Maybe at some point — I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative — we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” Macron told Le Parisien newspaper.
“France’s strength is that we can do it,” he added, cited by The Insider Paper.
The debate regarding the feasibility of ground operations and the provision of long-range missiles to Ukraine was at risk of fracturing the unity among allies.
Meanwhile, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, expressed his displeasure towards Macron’s initial reluctance to dismiss the idea of dispatching forces to Ukraine, and his candid remarks urging allies not to act out of fear.
In a display of unity, Macron convened with his counterparts from Germany and Poland in Berlin on Friday, affirming their collective support for Ukraine.
Following the gathering, Macron declared that the trio, known as the Weimar Triangle, stood “united” in their commitment to “never let Russia win and to support the Ukrainian people until the end.”
At the end of last week, Germany’s left-center parliamentary majority voted against supplying Ukraine with the long-range Taurus missiles, which had been demanded and was supported by the conservative opposition.
At the same time, France, in cooperation with the UK, has been supplying Ukraine with the long-range “Storm Shadow” / SCALP missiles, which have inflicted substantial losses on the Russians.
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