Macron doesn't rule out sending troops to Ukraine if Russians break through line of contact
France's President Emmanuel Macron has not changed his opinion on the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine. He considers such an approach correct and said that if the Russians break through the line of contact and Ukraine requests help, it is worth considering.
Macron replied affirmatively that he still stands by his words regarding the possibility of deploying allies' troops in Ukraine.
"I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out. We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor!" Macron said in an interview with The Economist.
He insists that withholding from the adversary a full understanding of what actions can or should not be expected is also a deterrence tool.
"Otherwise we weaken ourselves, which is the framework within which we have been operating until now. In fact, many countries said that in the weeks that followed that they understood our approach, that they agreed with our position and that this position was a good thing," added the French president.
Macron noted that the French military has recently intervened in Africa, to fight terrorism at the request of other sovereign states.
"If the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request–which is not the case today–we would legitimately have to ask ourselves this question. So I think to rule it out a priori is not to learn the lessons of the past two years," he said.
He added that the aggressive reaction from Moscow to his initial statements proved that they had the desired effect.
"I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine. If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighbouring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?
And behind that, what credibility for Europeans who would have spent billions, said that the survival of the continent was at stake and not have given themselves the means to stop Russia? So yes, we mustn’t rule anything out because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine," Macron concluded.
He also explained he was talking about a number of threats, starting with direct military ones, when he said Europe "can fall apart" in a recent speech.