MOSCOW, 29 February (BelTA) - French President Emmanuel Macron’s statements about sending troops to Ukraine are dangerous, spokesman for the Russian president Dmitry Peskov told the media, TASS has reported.
"As for Macron’s statements, it’s something new, which is far more dangerous," Dmitry Peskov said. "On the one hand, our Western partners are predictable but, on the other, unfortunately, they are beginning to discuss issues such as direct deployment of troops to Ukraine, which could cause irreparable damage to security and stability on the continent, leading to the irreversible consequences," he added.
Dmitry Peskov pointed out that the very fact that politicians in the West were discussing the issue "certainly makes it clear that the current generation of European politicians probably neither have a proper understanding of the word ‘security’ nor have a proper instinct of self-preservation."
Hosting a conference of European leaders on Ukraine in Paris on 26 February, the French president did not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine “as Kiev's military campaign appears to be faltering,” according to AFP." "Macron has smashed a major taboo by floating the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine.”
Many countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Spain, rushed to insist that they do not plan to send their soldiers to Ukraine and oppose participation in hostilities. Steffen Hebestreit, spokesman for the German federal government, pointed out that none of the participants in the conference on Ukraine in Paris supported Macron's idea of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine. According to him, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was extremely skeptical about such an initiative.
The first Western leader to support Macron's idea of sending troops to Ukraine was Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. According to Politico, she said that Western leaders should not rule out such a possibility. "I think it is also the signals that we are sending to Russia, that we are not ruling out different things. Because all the countries have understood that we have to do everything so that Ukraine wins and Russia loses this war," Kallas said. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis expressed the opinion that "nothing should be off the table, no option should be rejected out of hand."
Experts note that over time Western countries have crossed many red lines in the Ukrainian conflict. For example, until recently, the supply of French and British long-range cruise missiles to Kiev was considered unthinkable.
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