Ukraine does not need NATO troops on its territory to counter military aggression from Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“As long as Ukraine holds out, the French army can stay on French territory. But if Putin manages to attack another NATO country, the situation will be quite different”, Zelensky said in an interview with BFMTV. So he commented on the words of French President Emmanuel Macron, who admitted sending troops to Ukraine in the future.
Zelensky reminded that Ukraine is not a member of NATO and therefore it is not covered by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides for a collective response in the event of an attack on one or more members of the bloc. “Your children will not die in Ukraine”, Zelensky said, addressing the French.
In late February, Macron said after a meeting with Western leaders on supporting Ukraine that “today there is no consensus on sending ground troops” to the country, but “nothing can be ruled out in the future”.
Macron discussed a scenario in which French troops could be brought into Ukraine at a meeting with French party heads. In particular, he claimed that he could send soldiers to fight Russia if there was a frontal breakthrough towards Odesa or Kyiv.
French authorities are also considering allowing special forces and military units to cross the Ukrainian border, Le Monde’s sources said. They said Paris believes such a decision would pose a “strategic dilemma” for Russia.
At the same time, most NATO countries, including the USA, opposed sending troops to Ukraine. Only Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia supported the initiative. Poland also did not rule out such an option. The Kremlin warned that Russia’s conflict with NATO would become inevitable if the bloc’s military appeared on the territory of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin, following Macron’s statement, threatened “possible interventionists” in Ukraine with nuclear weapons, who “should realize” that it “can hit targets on their territory.”
