Europe does not rule out that troops of Western countries may be redeployed to Ukraine. Several countries may have such intentions at once. Find out for what purposes the West may take this step and what Zelensky says about it

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French President Emmanuel Macron said at the European leaders' congress in Paris on 26 February that NATO does not rule out the possibility of sending its troops to Ukraine, although there is no consensus on this issue among the countries. 

"Today there is no consensus on sending ground troops, but nothing can be ruled out. We will do everything possible to prevent russia from winning this war", the French leader said.

What did Macron mean?

Against the backdrop of Paris' statement, leaders of other European countries, as well as NATO member states, disavowed the idea of sending their military to Ukraine. For example, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that "there will be no European or NATO ground troops" in Ukraine.

Similar statements were made in the United States, Britain, Spain and Finland, where they also said they would not send their soldiers anywhere. 

At the same time, despite the words of their NATO colleagues, France again did not rule out such a scenario. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that the French military does not intend to take part in hostilities directly, but may be sent to bypass NATO to train the Ukrainian military, protect Ukraine's border and improve air defence.

"The reality is that russia is a direct and immediate threat to France in every respect", Attal said, adding that Paris has no concrete plans to send troops to Ukraine.

It is worth noting that there are countries in Europe that support the French president's initiative. The Netherlands, Estonia, and Lithuania also agree to send troops to Ukraine to help with training and establishing various processes, but they will not fight.

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How did Zelenskyy react to this?

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that any initiatives aimed at strengthening Ukraine in repelling russian aggression will be good for the whole world. The President also admitted that Macron had warned him about the new initiative before announcing it to European leaders, but without giving any details.

At the same time, Zelenskyy does not yet know the details of Macron's plan, but noted that he would share them when he found out what exactly it was about.

"He (Macron - ed.) will share with me when he comes to Ukraine in March. And then I will know everything in great detail and will be able to share it with you more specifically," the president said.

putin is already threatening NATO

The russian dictator had time to react to Macron's words and, as usual, threatened with nuclear weapons.

He also mentioned that russia had already "fought back" against Western troops, referring to Germany's attack during World War II. However, there was nothing more than intimidation from the dictator's lips.

"Everything that the West comes up with really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilisation", the terrorist said.

Similar thoughts have been voiced in Europe before

Macron is not the first person to talk about the possible deployment of Western troops in Ukraine. Last year, former North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke about the theoretical possibility of sending foreign troops to Ukraine. He believed that this option could be part of the discussion on Kyiv's "security guarantees" outside NATO.

In an interview with Radio Liberty, former Ukrainian Ambassador to London Vadym Prystaiko said that the UK is one of the countries that could send its armed forces to Ukraine in the event of a "catastrophic development of the war".

Based on these statements, it can be concluded that discussions on this issue are actively taking place. However, Western countries, as has been repeatedly stated, do not want an escalation with russia, but at the same time, serious messages have begun to come from Europe about putin's preparations to attack the EU and NATO. We talked about this here.

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