“I’m not going to parse President Macron’s words. I mean, he certainly has every right and ability to speak for himself in his views. All I can do is speak for President [Joe] Biden, commander in chief,” he said when asked to comment on French President Emmanuel Macron’s call on allies not to be cowardly.
“He’s also been very clear since the very beginning of this war. There’s not going to be US troops on the ground fighting inside Ukraine,” the official added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not asking allies to send troops to Ukraine, Kirby stressed.
“President Zelensky isn’t asking for that. He’s just asking for the tools and capabilities. He’s never asked for foreign troops to fight for his country. He and his troops want to do that, but they need the tools and that’s what we need to help,” he continued.
On February 26, Macron stated that at a meeting in Paris, where representatives of about 20 Western countries discussed further support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, the topic of the potential deployment by Western countries of their own ground troops to Ukraine was raised. According to him, the participants did not reach a consensus on this issue, but such a scenario cannot be ruled out in the future. After the conference, representatives of most of the participating countries stressed that they were not planning to send troops to Ukraine and, moreover, that they opposed their involvement in military hostilities against Russia.
Director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin stated in an interview with the Soloviov Live television channel Macron’s statements about NATO troops in Ukraine reveal the irresponsibility of European leaders, who are pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear war.
When asked by the host whether such statements are pushing the world to the verge of a nuclear war, he said, “Yes.”
“It demonstrates a high level of political responsibility of the current leaders of European countries, in this case, the French president. It is sad to see this, sad to understand that the current European and North Atlantic leaders lack the ability to negotiate and often demonstrate the lack of common sense. That is why such statements are very dangerous,” Naryshkin added.
