French president Emmanuel Macron has refused to rule out sending troops to Ukraine, but admitted as of now there is no such consensus among European leaders on the issue.
At a meeting convened in Paris of 20 European leaders, Macron said, “there is no consensus to officially back any ground troops. That said, nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we can to make sure that Russia does not prevail”.
Since the war started in Ukraine, it is possibly the first time that such a discussion on providing troops to Ukraine has taken place.
“There is a change in Russia’s stance. It is striving to take on further territory and it has its eyes not just on Ukraine but on many other countries as well, so Russia is presenting a greater danger,” he added.
Those who were present during the meeting included German chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK foreign secretary David Cameron, the Polish president Andrzej Duda and the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.
Following reports of Ukrainian frontlines starting to crumble, Macron had called this meeting in haste. He said that Russia’s defeat is absolutely essential for peace and security and it is necessary for Europe to move from words into action and think independently of the US.
Presently, around 30% of all funding for Ukraine comes from Europe and leaders have said recently that there is a possibility of increasing this through further bilateral and EU-level agreements.
Adding that providing ammunition to Ukraine was “top priority”, Macron believed that there is room to increase production in Europe, and also to purchase surplus ammunition stocks outside Europe to hand to Ukraine.
The European leaders who were part of the meeting said that they wanted Ukraine to negotiate peace and return to full territorial sovereignty.
On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Despite expectations of quickly overrunning the country, Ukraine and Russian forces have been stuck in a war which shows no signs of ending.
