No one in Europe is going to send troops to Ukraine – Czech PM

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has said that "no one in Europe" is going to send troops to Ukraine.

As reported by Czech news agency CTK, Fiala said that the issue of sending troops took up a minimum of time at Monday's Paris summit on assistance to Ukraine. The idea was put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron.

"Wouldn't it be useful if some soldiers, for example, from France, were on the territory of Ukraine – not fighting there, but helping with training," Fiala recounted Macron’s idea.

Fiala said that the vast majority of participants in the Paris summit concluded that the issue of sending troops would not be discussed or even considered further. 

"This is not a topic [for discussion] because the idea is unacceptable for the vast majority of countries," Fiala stressed.

"No one in Europe is going to send troops to Ukraine," Fiala added, answering questions, including whether Czech diplomats had detailed information in advance about the topics to be discussed at the Paris summit.

He did not want to reveal the nature of the information he had about the meeting but said that all the necessary information had been available.

"I don't think there is a need to dramatise and scare people with things that no one has proposed and is not proposing in the way they are being interpreted," Fiala added.

Most NATO countries have ruled out sending their troops to Ukraine, including such major players as Germany, the UK and the US.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Wednesday that he was grateful for the debate initiated by Macron.

Estonian PM Kaja Kallas also supported Macron's idea of Western troops in Ukraine.

Moscow reacted angrily to Macron's statements, warning that the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine would inevitably lead to a conflict between Russia and NATO.

On 29 February, Macron said that all his statements about Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine – including the possibility of sending Western troops, which has caused a stir – had been carefully considered.