France could still send troops to Ukraine – minister

President Emmanuel Macron first commented on the possibility of deployments earlier this year

France is not ruling out deploying troops to Ukraine, European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad has said, insisting that President Emmanuel Macron stands by his previous statements on the issue. The EU “has a duty to further support Ukraine” in its conflict with Russia, Haddad argued.

Macron first floated the possibility of putting NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine in February, but faced significant pushback from other members of the US-led military bloc.

In an interview with Germany’s Berliner Zeitung published on Tuesday, Haddad stated that “President Macron has said that we should not rule out anything, and this stands as ever.” The West ought to “contemplate training missions in particular,” the minister added.

When asked if he feared potential escalation of the conflict, should this scenario materialize, Haddad accused Russia of shutting down all attempts at a diplomatic settlement. “We should stop drawing red lines for ourselves and seek to embrace what we call strategic ambiguity,” he insisted.

The minister also advocated allowing Kiev to use Western-supplied long-range missiles to hit targets deep inside Russia.

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Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service reported in July that France had previously mulled sending about 2,000 troops to Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters in June, Macron revealed that Paris was working to establish a coalition to facilitate the deployment of military instructors to aid Kiev. At the same time, he claimed that “we are not at war with Russia” and that France did not “want an escalation.”

In May, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy criticized Macron’s remarks on a potential troop deployment, warning that such “strategic ambiguity [could] create the conditions for a catastrophic outburst.”

Throughout June, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini also spoke out against the French president’s idea.

Around the same time, Politico cited anonymous officials as saying that US President Joe Biden had blocked President Macron’s proposal to send Western instructors to Ukraine over concerns of an escalation in the conflict.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also repeatedly voiced opposition to sending NATO troops to support Kiev.

Back in May, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Macron’s rhetoric as “very dangerous,” while President Vladimir Putin cautioned that the deployment of Western forces to Ukraine could lead to a “serious conflict in Europe and a global conflict.”