Rebuttal of Macron’s remarks comes as Kremlin warns of conflict if West puts boots on ground in Ukraine.
Germany and Poland have said that they would not be sending troops to Ukraine, after reports that some Western countries may be considering doing so as the war with Russia enters its third year.
NATO’s secretary-general also said there are no plans to send troops to Ukraine, after other central European leaders confirmed that they too would not be providing soldiers.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, warned that a direct conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable if the alliance sends combat troops.
“The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, commenting on French President Macron’s remarks.
Moscow’s warning came a day after Macron said that sending in Western ground troops should not be “ruled out” in the future, after some 20 European leaders gathered in Paris to send a message of European resolve on Ukraine.
It is “absolutely not in the interests” of European members of NATO, Peskov said. “In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability [of direct conflict].”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeared to have a different view of what happened in Paris. He said the participants had agreed “that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil who are sent there by European states or NATO states.”
Scholz said there was also consensus “that soldiers operating in our countries also are not participating actively in the war themselves.”
At a bilateral meeting, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala – two of Kyiv’s strongest supporters – also said they were not considering sending troops.
Seeking to clarify Macron’s remarks, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on Tuesday the president had in mind sending troops for specific tasks such as helping on mine clearance, production of weapons on site, and cyberdefence.
“(This) could require a (military) presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of fighting,” Sejourne told French lawmakers.
‘No plans for combat troops on the ground’
The idea of sending troops has been taboo, particularly as NATO seeks to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. Nothing prevents NATO members from joining such an undertaking individually or in groups, but the organisation itself would only get involved if all 31 members agree.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that “NATO allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We have done that since 2014 and stepped up after the full-scale invasion. But there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico also said his government is not planning to propose a deployment, but that some countries were weighing whether to strike bilateral deals to provide troops to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion.
Fico did not provide details about which countries or what the troops would do in Ukraine. Macron, too, avoided naming any countries, saying he wanted to maintain “strategic ambiguity” and not tip the West’s hand to Russia.
NATO as an alliance provides Ukraine only non-lethal aid and support like medical supplies, uniforms and winter equipment, but some members send weapons and ammunition of their own accord, bilaterally or in groups.
The conference in Paris was held just after France, Germany and the UK each signed 10-year bilateral security agreements with Ukraine as its government works to shore up Western support.
