Yuri Kobzar18:27, 03/14/24

Macron was convinced that it would not be possible to come to an agreement with the Russian Federation, but he believes that the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have enough strength for a military victory.

The French authorities have been thinking about sending troops to Ukraine at least since the summer of 2023. The French newspaper Le Monde writes about this .

The publication notes that the statement by the country’s President Emmanuel Macron about the possible dispatch of troops to Ukraine at the end of February shocked many in Europe, but not other top French officials. According to journalists, this possibility was discussed in the strictest secrecy at the beginning of June last year; on June 12 it was raised at a meeting of the French Defense Council. 

The main reason for such conversations, as the newspaper writes, is the “weakness of the Ukrainian troops,” which “caused concern” in Paris. It is alleged that back in the summer, the Elysee Palace secretly admitted that “things are not going very well” in Kyiv. By that time, sources say, Macron himself had already moved away from the idea of ​​a “diplomatic path” to ending the war in Ukraine.

According to sources, on the night of February 21, during a feast in a narrow circle, Macron voiced his readiness to send troops to Ukraine.

“The situation in Ukraine, occupied by Russian troops for 2 years now, is deteriorating and the war is dragging on. In any case, in the coming year I will have to send several guys to Odessa,” the newspaper’s interlocutor quotes Macron as saying.

Five days later, on February 26, Emmanuel Macron publicly admitted for the first time the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine. This statement of his, as Le Monde writes, became a “diplomatic disaster” for France, the consequences of which the Elysee Palace is “trying to minimize” to this day. 

“The initiative of the French president, which is poorly understood at the international level, is difficult to understand among the French themselves,” the newspaper notes.

(C)UNIAN 2024