STANDING FIRM

Macron Says He’ll Consider Deploying Troops in Ukraine in Specific Circumstance

Russia has already made direct warnings to the French government against such a move.

French President Emmanuel Macron has reaffirmed his position that the possibility of sending ground troops into Ukraine cannot be ruled out. “I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,” Macron said in an interview with The Economist published Thursday. He added that if Russia was to “break through the front lines” in Ukraine and Kyiv requested troops, “we would legitimately have to ask ourselves this question.” Macron’s comments double down on remarks he made in February in which he said the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine could not be “ruled out,” which prompted a direct warning from Moscow’s Defense Ministry. Macron said in the new interview that his view is that “Russia cannot win in Ukraine” because if it does, “there will be no security in Europe.” He also said a Ukrainian defeat would hurt the credibility of 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.”