French PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published on Saturday evening that a Western ground operation in Ukraine may be necessary “at some point”, days after meeting with the leaders of Germany and Poland.
Last month, Macron refused to rule out the possibility of sending troops ashore in Ukraine, drawing a sharp reaction from Berlin and other European partners.
The French president did not change his position, but stressed that Western allies would not take the initiative.
“It’s possible that at some point – I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative – we will have to carry out a ground operation, whatever it is, against the Russian forces,” Macron told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview conducted on Friday.
“The strength of France is that we can do it”.
Disputes over possible ground operations and the delivery of long-range missiles to Kyiv have threatened cooperation between the allies.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted angrily to Macron’s earlier refusal to rule out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine and his stern comments warning allies not to be “cowards.”
Macron met his German and Polish counterparts in Berlin on Friday, in a sign of solidarity behind Kyiv.
After the meeting, Macron stated that the three countries of the so-called Weimar Triangle were “united” in their goal to “never let Russia win and to support the Ukrainian people to the end”. (AFP/Z-3)
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