27, February 2024
Nato allies reject Emmanuel Macron idea of troops to Ukraine 0
Several Nato countries, including Germany and the UK, have ruled out deploying ground troops to Ukraine, after French President Emmanuel Macron said “nothing should be excluded”.
Mr Macron said there was “no consensus” on sending Western soldiers to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has warned of direct conflict if Nato troops deploy there.
Russian forces have recently made gains in Ukraine and Kyiv has urgently appealed for more weapons.
Mr Macron told a news conference on Monday evening: “We should not exclude that there might be a need for security that then justifies some elements of deployment.
“But I’ve told you very clearly what France maintains as its position, which is a strategic ambiguity that I stand by.”
The French leader was speaking in Paris, which is hosting a crisis meeting in support of Ukraine attended by heads of European states, as well as the US and Canada.
His comments prompted a response from other European and Nato member countries.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there had been no change to the agreed position that no European country or Nato member state would send troops to Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said the country had no plans for a large-scale military deployment to Ukraine, beyond the small number of personnel already training Ukrainian forces.
The office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy’s “support does not include the presence of troops from European or Nato states on Ukrainian territory”.
Mr Peskov, on behalf of the Kremlin, called Mr Macron’s suggestion “a very important new element” adding it was absolutely not in the interests of Nato members.
“In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability [of direct conflict],” he said.
Earlier, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg denied considering whether troops would be sent to Ukraine, although he insisted the alliance would continue to support Ukraine, which is not a Nato member.
That position has been echoed by a number of Nato member states including Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Nato is a military alliance whose 31 members agree that, if a member state is attacked, they will help it defend itself. Sweden is set to become its latest member after receiving Hungary’s approval this week.
Kyiv is critically dependent on modern weapons supplies from its Western allies, particularly the US, to continue fighting Russia – a far bigger military force with an abundance of artillery ammunition.
But the approval of a much needed $95bn (£75bn) US aid package – including $61bn for Ukraine – faces an uphill battle in the US House of Representatives.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who took part in Monday’s meeting in Paris by video link, said that “everything we do together to defend against Russian aggression adds real security to our nations for decades to come”.
Source: BBC
4, March 2024
Putin seeks to ‘destabilize’ Germany with wiretap leak, defense minister says 0
Germany on Sunday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to sow disunity with the wiretap leak of a confidential German army discussion on the Ukraine war, at a time when Berlin is under pressure to supply the Taurus missile to Kyiv.
A 38-minute recording of the talks was posted online late Friday on Russian social media, with the participants discussing the possible use of German-made Taurus missiles and their potential impact.
The discussions also covered the use of long-range missiles provided to Kyiv by France and Britain.
“It is about using this recording to destabilise and unsettle us,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, adding that he “hoped that Putin will not succeed”.
“It is part of an information war that Putin is carrying out,” he added.
Pistorius said he was not aware of any further leaks at the army.
He added that he would await the result of a military probe into the case to decide what consequences to draw.
Germany’s Scholz vows probe into ‘very serious’ leak of army talks on Ukraine war
Kyiv has long been clamouring for Germany to provide it with Taurus missiles, which can reach targets up to 500 kilometres (about 300 miles) away.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far refused to send the missiles, fearing that it would lead to an escalation of the conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.
The acquisition of German Taurus missiles would provide a massive boost for Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to fend off Russia’s invasion.
France and Britain have supplied Kyiv with SCALP or Storm Shadow missiles, both of which have a range of about 250 kilometres.
But Scholz has said that Germany could not justify matching British and French moves in sending long-range missiles to Ukraine and supporting the weapon system’s deployment.
“This is a very long-range weapon, and what the British and French are doing in terms of targeting and supporting targeting cannot be done in Germany,” Scholz said, without specifying exactly what he meant.
Britain denied that it had any direct involvement in operating the missiles.
“Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow and its targeting processes are the business of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.
Source: AFP