Macron confirms readiness to send soldiers to Ukraine. Just politics and words?

Emmanuel Macron persists. In an interview published in The Economist, the French President indicated that the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine was still on the table. “If the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request—which is not the case today—we should legitimately ask ourselves the question”, he explained, adding that “to rule it out a priori is not to learn the lessons of the last two years”.”As I said, I exclude nothing, because we are facing someone who excludes nothing,” said the French President, pointing the finger at Vladimir Putin. “We have undoubtedly been too hesitant in formulating the limits of our action for someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor,” he explained.

Emmanuel Macron reiterated that Russia cannot win the war because “if Russia wins in Ukraine, we will no longer have security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighboring countries, Moldavia, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, and so many others?” he wondered. A Russian victory would call into question the credibility of the Europeans, “who would have said that it was the survival of the continent that was at stake here, and who would not have given themselves the means to stop Russia. So, yes, we mustn’t rule anything out.”.

Last February, Emmanuel Macron declared that sending Western troops to Ukraine should not “be excluded.”. This statement provoked disapproval from several European countries.

Useless words

Frankly, Macron’s position seems to be a mixture between a provocation to allies on the one hand and a way to distract French public opinion on the other. Talking about intervention in the event of a breakthrough or decisive Russian victory saves neither a Ukrainian nor a Russian soldier’s life, nor does it regain a meter of occupied territory.

If Macron is serious in his words, then really take the bull by the horns and send a French expeditionary force to Ukraine, as Napoleon III did in 1853.

With these words, the French president puts himself in the hands of Ukraine: if the Kiev army does not put up excessive resistance to the Russian army tomorrow, then what would Macron do? Would he send in the troops? Paris’s policy is in Kvyv’s hands.

If, on the other hand, as is far more likely, these are provocations designed to distract the French public, then the move risks being counterproductive: all polls say that the majority of French people do not want war, so these bellicose words only risk bringing votes to Bardella and Le Pen’s Rassemblement National.