French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday stood behind his comments about NATO not ruling out sending troops to Ukraine despite the uproar it caused and the warning it drew from Russia.
“These are sufficiently serious issues; every one of the words that I say on this issue is weighed, thought through, and measured,” Macron told reporters.
Following a meeting of European leaders on the Ukrainian proxy war on Monday, Macron said, “There’s no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing can be ruled out.”
His comments appeared to confirm a warning from Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, an opponent of NATO support for Ukraine, who said earlier that some NATO members were considering sending troops to Ukraine on a “bilateral basis.”
Macron’s comments caused many NATO members to refute the idea that they’re considering sending combat troops to Ukraine, although it’s an open secret that there are a small number of NATO special operations forces already in the country.
One NATO country that backed up Macron is Lithuania, the Baltic nation that borders Kaliningrad and has an active duty military that only consists of only about 15,000 troops.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis welcomed Macron’s comments, saying, “No option can be rejected out of hand.” The country’s defense minister, Arvydas Anušauskas, said troops could potentially be sent to Ukraine for training, not for combat.
The Kremlin has warned that the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine would make a direct Russia-NATO war inevitable. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is on “full combat alert.”
Maybe Macron is still butt hurt for the 60 French mercenaries killed in Kiev?
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/01/26/french-mercenaries-killed-in-ukraine-paris-calls-out-a-russian-disinformation-operation_6466963_4.html
The linked article argues that this is just Russian disinformation.
This link exposes a news that you didn’t know before in a form of propaganda.
Know the difference.
It exposes a Russian lie – so not news, if you have something that contradicts it feel free to link it otherwise the notion that it exposes anything other than a Russian lie is all in your head,
France’s services in charge of information warfare and Le Monde? Two real credible sources ya got there.
Any American obsessed with so-called Russian lies is brainwashed. It’s not that Russia doesn’t lie, all governments do, and the bigger ones do more of it. But in the U.S., We’re Number One in lying, so focus on your own country.
You have the actual source or are you just claiming that the links exists? Btw I’m not a US citizen and I can read French.
Like I said, know the difference. You didn’t know about the French dying in a building, until western propaganda denied it. Otherwise you were in complete darkness.
I did not know about it because it did not happen – no one can kill 60 odd western citizens without it becoming common knowledge – you know we are all on social media and what not. So no I did not know about things that did not happen and you have failed to provide any source for this other than one which debunks the claim.
Clearly it hasn’t occurred to you that the French would deny this, because reporting dead French mercuneries in Kiev would create a bigger uproar in France.
Clearly you do not understand that even trying to deny the death of 60 mercenaries would not work – even just one dead mercenary most often gets reported. Neither France nor any other first world country have 60 soldiers whom no one would miss.
This is just too dumb, if you take the debunking of a Russian claim as proof of the veracity of the original claim, there simply is no basis for any debate – you are then essentially claiming to have monopoly over what is the truth.
Even the simplest analysis of the claim would lead you to the conclusion that to be kept a secret the 60 dead soldiers would have to be orphans with no friends outside the military and no social media presence – good luck finding any such 60 men of fighting age anywhere in the west.
Dude, seriously?
You are getting worse.
He badly needs to explain to the people why they were there, maybe he can obfuscate it with NATO obligations?
All USA/NATO soldiers are mercenaries. The French always had a foreign legion with a high esprit de corps.
That’s the point. Why explain himself when he can smear the news as propaganda.
The loss of Paris would be sad but if France sends troops to fight Russia all bets are off.
If only Russia could take Kiev first…
I saw this comment at RT;
Why do French military vehicles come equipped with rear view mirrors? ……… So they can see the front lines!
It’s cyclical … today’s “cheese eating surrender monkeys” (Simpsons) were Europe’s terror army during the early 19th century when well-led by Nappy, destroying Austria, Prussia, and every other army they met until they ran into the Russian winter.
This current Nappy is a peacock strut artist and not to be taken seriously.
Well, in an arm wrestle with D. Trump he would stand a good chance, judging from some of their previous handshakes, I guess.
Hahaha, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say about anything.
Here’s another one, why do Russian military vehicles come equipped with rear view mirrors?
They don’t, corrupted officials never installed them.
Do Russian military vehicles come with mirrors? Hard to tell. The only ones I can find images of have been blown to bits.
Part of the Anglo-American strategy is to create a myth of invincibility, and part of that is to portray the French as poor fighters. Jokes about French military vehicles are a product of that.
And with RT being a pro-Russian site, normally I’d expect the Anglophone readership to refrain from feeding into the Anglo-American narrative on just about anything. But noooo…
RT is Russian Times; “Corporate west news knows you believe..,. RT believes you know.
Corporate CIA Hollywood propaganda rags are using AI to figure out why Russian news is so world wide and popular while lying propaganda is losing out more and more every day,
Russia Today, not Russian Times. The main difference between the RT regime stenographers and the corporate western regime stenographers is that the former doesn’t pretend to be anything but what it is.
You are very close. The former is also a tad more realistic about dangers of flirting with nuclear Armageddon.
US citizens could jump ahead into a new form of socially and environmentally advanced free market and be helpful stabilizing for long-run prosperity and healthy fun.
The media on the losing side is much more motivated to spread lies. See NYT, WP they have no credibility left. They sold the nation the war in Iraq, they had to know better and do much the same now with Ukraine and Gaza.
don’t forget AlJazeera
Well, Garrett Is a huge pro russian activist here.
Cannot expect anything less.
The problem isn’t the pro-Russian bent, but rather the notion that the French and/or Italians are lesser soldiers than the US or British. I talked it over with some pro-Russian guy a year ago and he went as far as to say that it was Anglo racism.
Reading about the ‘Freedom Fries’ thing soured my perception of Anglophone society, woke me up to the malfeasance of the CIA and NATO, and gave me a greater appreciation for Russian society and president Vladimir Putin.
Well, i hace zero respect for land thief Putin.
Putin is a real statesman, you are only envious, jealous because there are no statesmen in the whole US/NATO gang, possible exception are Orban and Erdogan.
We have spineless servants of the Zionists in Tel Aviv. They are in charge, not Biden or Nuland.
You mean common sense, peace loving, humane people, civilized people not brutal demons.
I wonder if you know RT news is a state controlled media.
Yes, RT news only shows the news the Kremlin wants and how it wants it.
Macron’s babbling represents only himself, NOT the will of the French people.
“According to a survey conducted in June 2023, only 13 percent of French respondents thought that Emmanuel Macron was very good at defending France’s best interests abroad. Moreover, only 11 percent of those surveyed believed Macron was really able to reform the country. And finally almost half of the respondents felt that President Macron was not close to French people’s concerns at all.”
I don’t believe he would have ANY national support for something this stupid.
Do you think support from the people matters? It sure doesn’t in the US.
Poodle yapping from behind the American-built fence …
Macron is angry because Russia is ousting the French from their colonies (yes by coming to know how things r in franqafrique they r colonies in all but name) and trying to dissuade Russia from doing so by threatening escalation in Ukraine.
Won’t work but doesn’t hurt to try
Well, France has the right to protect its Ethnic French citizens living in Ukraine.
Isn’t that the “Reason” Putin invaded Ukraine?
I’m really not sure, Russia keeps changing the excuse.
Take a look at the map and find the French border it shares with Ukraine before you post stupid remarks.
Macron, Europe’s Yoyo.
Macron has balls. Reminds me of Romney.
‘Boots on the ground should not be be off the table’ –Ben Hodges interview
D/W is a propaganda station , like the Voice of America.
Like you. Russian propagandist
You propagandize and support genocide. Peoples lives, including children’s lives, mean nothing to you. What kind of a dehumanized human being are you?
He irrationally hates Russia. I have a couple of friends like that, can’t have a rational conversation with them about any of this.
Macron is behaving like a roaring mouse again?
I just blocked “Rational Thinker” since clearly he’s not.
As Scott Ritter was pointing out yesterday, Russia has dozens of brigades in Ukraine. England can not put together one brigade. France can not put together one brigade. Germany can not put together one brigade. Poland can put together maybe a half dozen. The maximum that NATO combined can put together in reality – as opposed to “on paper” – is maybe a dozen or so. So he concludes that anyone crossing the border into Ukraine and engaging Russians will die.
And further, that Russia would be entirely within its rights to regard any EU country participating as a legitimate target for retaliation, including with nuclear weapons. France has maybe 3 or 4 nuclear-armed subs. Maybe they can get off some missiles that Russia will shoot down using its S-400 and S-500 systems. Meanwhile, Paris vanishes from a hypersonic missile strike which no one in NATO can defend against.
Gawd what is wrong with this twat? Seems like he still thinks he is a schoolboy trying to impress his teacher….I mean wife, with the big war talk. The French voters need to vote him out of office before he hurts himself.
Macron drew the short straw I think. They had to pick someone to start floating the idea with the public to see how feasible it might be to get people on board with a world war.
This is how bad things have gotten: we have to turn to Slovakia to get any sanity. I can’t begin to imagine what European countries are thinking, acting as U.S. puppets in this situation. They’ve done far more harm to their own countries by doing what the U.S. wants than if they’d told the U.S. where to go.
The one plausible explanation for all the incompetent corrupt governments in NATO democracies I can think of is that the same people who gave us presidents like Trump and Biden put the European governments in power. They put the USA in charge of all the other vassals including Canada and the NATO additions, Sweden and Finland. The Zionists rule the roost.
Biden has no balls, Netanyahu tells the self-confessed Zionist Biden what he has to do and yes Sir demented Biden will kiss his boots.
That’s true about the same people. It’s the global ruling class that run everything anyway. Countries don’t even matter to them, just like Ned Beatty’s speech in the movie Network, and he had it figured out in the 1970s!
Thanks, nice to know I am not the only one to think in that direction. I am in good company. The global ruling class, the global corporate elite, our global bourgeois Nobility.
The USA is Europe’s, and the whole worlds real enemy, not Russia or China. The asylums for the deranged, power hungry Zionists is in Washington and Tel Aviv.
Well, Ukraine is losing the war and Sunak has been quiet… So Macron feels the need to lead the EU to intimidate Russia…!
Thank God for Macron. France could easily be in Putin’s camp:
https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/03/01/old-guard-stands-with-putins-propaganda-in-france/
My grandmother was from Kiev and considered herself Russian. I find the name change in order to appease Nazis totally repulsive.
What “name change?”
The capital of China is 北京, but in the US it’s rendered “Beijing” and pronounced slightly differently.
Kyiv and Kiev are the same name, just rendered somewhat differently in different local languages.
They changed the spelling after the Obama regime change in 2014? Must have been Queen Nuland’s smart idea.
There was no spelling change. The western media just switched from an English rendering of the Russian-language name to an English rendering of the Ukrainian-language name.
Thomas, on whos orders did they change the spelling of Kiev? I know, it is trivial, just curious.
What makes you think that regime stenographers need orders? You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind’s blowing.
My guess is, they needed some coordination. MHO
Don’t these people realize that very little can be hidden in today’s world of super surveillance. Perhaps they wanted the Russians to know about their plans? https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/complete-disaster-german-govt-scholz-promises-probe-very-serious-leaked-recording-plan
The Italians are taking away their air defense system from Slovakia, it is needed “elsewhere” – Fico
Fico noted that now there is no one to defend Slovakia.
Bwahahahaha
https://ukrainetoday.org/the-italians-are-taking-away-their-air-defense-system-from-slovakia-it-is-needed-elsewhere-fico/
“Putin’s imperial fantasy is not limited to Ukraine:” French Minister for European Affairs
The struggle of Ukrainians against Russia is also the struggle of the European Union. By resisting the invader, they are fighting for the security of Europe and France, because Vladimir Putin’s imperial fantasy is clearly not limited to Ukraine. French Minister of European Affairs Jean-Noël Barrault said this in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche.
He also said that European defense should come out from under NATO’s umbrella, since European defense “has acquired a completely new dimension since the beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine.”
https://ukrainetoday.org/putins-imperial-fantasy-is-not-limited-to-ukraine-french-minister-for-european-affairs/