In Moscow, the French president’s menacing manner has long been treated with composure.
Photo: REUTERS
The political dust raised by the possibility of sending NATO soldiers to help Kiev, announced by French President Emmanuel Macron after the conference on support for Ukraine in Paris, has not yet settled. “What was that?” – Analysts at the German newspaper Der Spiegel are scratching their heads. Did Macron want to scare Russia or did he launch a test balloon to test the reaction of the allies?
The only thing we can say with certainty is that it was the one that scared the allies the most. In Moscow, the French president’s menacing manner has long been treated with composure.
The German publication reveals the reason for the hastily convened meeting on Ukraine in Paris, citing a source at the Elysee Palace. It turns out that Macron complied with Zelensky’s request to bring together EU leaders to publicly express his “unwavering support” for kyiv during setbacks on the front.
The Ukrainian president addressed the participants in the meeting with a video message, thanking “dear Emmanuel” and everyone else for being with him. But who foresaw that in a few hours this support, like in the famous fairy tale, would turn into the opposite? Instead of demonstrating the unity of Westerners, the result of the conference was discord among them. And all thanks to Macron, who, in a one-man press conference called late last night, told the world that the issue of sending troops from NATO and EU countries to Ukraine was “being discussed.”
Most of the conference participants have already declared that they will not send their military to fight Russia. In Washington, whose representative was also in Paris, they spoke in the same spirit. But in Berlin, according to the European version of Politico, they were very irritated. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, even before leaving for Paris, repeated that he would not send long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, fearing Russia’s reaction and the possibility of a direct Western war with it. And immediately after the conference, on Tuesday, he rejected any suggestion that Western countries would send troops to help Ukraine. “There will be no ground forces from European countries or NATO,” he wrote on the social network.
There is another irritating point in Berlin’s attitude towards aid to kyiv from Paris. German officials point out that Macron is showing determination only in words, but in reality he is clearly behind the countries that support Ukraine.
According to the German Kiel Institute, France provided Zelensky with assistance worth only 640 million euros, while Germany has already provided and promised assistance to kyiv worth 17.7 billion. Thus, the Germans make a very critical assessment of the agility of Macron’s rooster. According to Der Spiegel, following the differences that have now emerged between the leaders of Germany and France, “it is not necessary to talk about a decisive joint Franco-German approach in one of the most critical periods since the end of the Second World War. .”
The creation of a “ninth coalition” announced by Macron to supply Ukraine with medium- and long-range missiles and bombs should also be seen more as a kind of public relations stunt than as a response to panicked calls from Kiev for urgent help and any way possible. .
“This “coalition” can include up to 15 countries,” Sergei Fedorov, an expert on France and a leading researcher at the European Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained to KP.RU. “But its functions are not limited to supplying ammunition to kyiv. Macron also stated the following objectives: countering Russian cyberattacks; joint production of projectiles and weapons in Ukraine; protection of countries threatened by “Russian aggression,” including, for some reason, Moldova; support for Ukraine on the border with Belarus using “non-military means.”
This initiative, as observers note, seems strange: yesterday Macron said that it is impossible to buy shells for the Armed Forces of Ukraine from third countries, that it is necessary to load the military capabilities of the EU countries, especially France, and today he fully admits that it is possible to search for ammunition on the side. Only now will we find the money (experts estimate that the necessary funds are 1.4 billion euros) and – go ahead…
Two consequences of the “unconditional support” event for Ukraine, which took place under Macron’s mantra “We will do everything necessary so that Russia cannot win,” are obvious. First: with his ostentatious determination to fight Russia with NATO troops, the French president caused discord in the ranks of the allies, who, unlike him, understand the consequences of such recklessness.
Second: there is confusion and indecision among kyiv’s allies, who clearly do not know what and how can be done to tilt the conflict situation in Ukraine in favor of the West. So can we allow our troops to be sent or not? Is it necessary to provide Kiev with medium and long-range missiles capable of hitting targets deep in Russia or not, because it is guaranteed that they will return? What do you really need to do to beat Moscow? After all, you can’t lose, you’re already convinced of that…
Isn’t the West entering a new stage of the crisis around Ukraine, which is described by the well-known formula: “We wanted the best…”?
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