Kremlin and Putin have issued a strong warning to France over the recent statement by President Emmanuel Macron regarding a potential increase in France’s support for Ukraine and increased Paris’ “involvement” in the war.
The Kremlin stated Thursday that President Emmanuel Macron was increasing France’s “involvement” in the conflict in Ukraine since his comments did not rule out sending Western troops there, a possibility rejected by most of his allies, AFP reports.
“Mr Macron is convinced of his policy of wanting to inflict a strategic defeat on our country and he continues to increase the level of direct involvement of France” in the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin spokesperson said, Dmitri Peskov, in a video broadcast on Telegram by a Russian journalist.
Macron’s statements deemed “contradictory”
Dimitri Peskov nevertheless underlined the “contradictory” nature of the declarations made in Paris on this subject since Emmanuel Macron’s first remarks on February 26, when the French president said “not to exclude” the sending of Western troops to Ukraine to the future.
This first declaration aroused the excitement of France’s allies within NATO, most of whom immediately rejected such a possibility. Despite the controversy, Emmanuel Macron then assured that all his words were “weighted” and “measured” , while refusing any “logic of escalation” with Moscow.
On Tuesday, he called on Ukraine’s allies to “not be cowardly” in the face of a Russia that had “become unstoppable” and on Thursday, receiving French party leaders to clarify his positions, he assured that Paris’ support for Kiev had “no limits” or “red lines”.