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The UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Finland, and Sweden all spoke up on Tuesday against French President Emmanuel Macron's suggestion that Western troops could be deployed to Ukraine.The Kremlin says all but 'bring it":
While there was no consensus about sending ground forces, Macron said on Monday following a pro-Ukraine summit in Paris that "in terms of dynamics, we cannot exclude anything" in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
There are "no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine," the secretary-general of the US-led bloc, Jens Stoltenberg, told AP in response to Macron's remarks.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not rule out sending troops in principle, but his spokesperson told reporters that "beyond the small number of personnel in [the] country supporting the armed forces [of Ukraine], we do not have any plans to make a large-scale deployment."
Deploying troops is "not on the cards at all for the moment," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told the public broadcaster SVT, adding that "for the moment, we're busy sending advanced equipment to Ukraine." Stockholm pledged military aid worth 7.1 billion kronor ($682 million) to Kiev last week. Kristersson also said there is currently "no demand" from Ukraine for Western ground troops.
There was a "widely shared" perception at the summit in Paris against the use of NATO ground troops, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto told the outlet Yle. He added that this is also Finland's position.
Warsaw "does not plan to send its troops to the territory of Ukraine," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday. His Czech counterpart, Petr Fiala, echoed that sentiment, saying there is no "need to open some other methods or ways" of helping Kiev.
If all EU member states were as committed as the Czech Republic and Poland to helping Ukraine, there would be no need to even discuss other forms of support, Tusk claimed.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was even more categorical, declaring that there will be "no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil, who are sent there by European or NATO countries" in the future.
The US and its allies have sent over $200 billion worth of financial, military, and material aid to the Ukrainian government since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022, vowing to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Moscow while insisting they are not actually a party to the hostilities. Russia's repeated warnings about the dangers of a direct confrontation have fallen on deaf ears.
A direct conflict between Russia and NATO will likely become inevitable if member states of the US-led military bloc send troops to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He was speaking after French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government hosted a high-profile meeting of Ukraine backers on Monday, said EU members "will do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning" - including deploying forces on the ground to support Kiev.
Several governments have since ruled out sending troops to the front line.
Opponents of the proposal have arrived at a "sober assessment of the potential risks" of deploying NATO forces in Ukraine, Peskov told the media on Tuesday. That would be "absolutely against the interests of those nations" and their people, he warned.
Asked about the probability of a direct conflict with NATO if Western troops are sent to Ukraine, the Kremlin spokesman said, "in this case, we have to talk not about the probability, but rather the inevitability."
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Moscow considers the Ukraine conflict to be a US-orchestrated proxy war against Russia, and has repeatedly warned that by supplying increasingly sophisticated weapons to Kiev, NATO members are drawing closer to a direct confrontation.
On 21 June 2018, Sachsen was operating with Lübeck near the Arctic Circle when it attempted to fire a SM-2 Block IIIA missile, and it exploded above the ship. The explosion scorched the paint off the bridge and the vertical launch cells battery. Two German sailors suffered minor injuries.
The fact is we are already immersed in a World War that is both existential and civilizational. As we stand at the crossroads, there is a bifurcation: either escalation towards overt "kinetic military action," or a multiplication of Hybrid Wars across several latitudes.See also:
Comment: The Daily Mail further clarifies the comments: And The Telegraph: Meanwhile the overall press coverage seems to be dancing around the issue, such as with the following from The Standard: Whilst one could put this down to infighting and/or incompetence - and it does come amidst the German Navy's recent embarrassment - what with the admission from the US about CIA bases stationed in Ukraine since 2014; with Macron's calls to send in France's troops to Ukraine; and the seeming need for the West to escalate matters, one can't help but wonder whether it's, at least in part, laying the ground for a provocation.
Although perhaps that's giving the desperate, bungling, albeit sinister, establishment puppets too much credit.
Either way, the outcome seems as though it will be the same: note that Russia's response is that, indeed, a direct (official) confrontation does seem to be brewing: