NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has refuted French President Emmanuel Macron's statements regarding the potential deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine.
"NATO and its allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We have been doing this since 2014 and intensified our efforts after the full-scale invasion. However, there are no plans to deploy NATO combat troops to Ukraine," Stoltenberg was quoted by the Associated Press.
Other NATO country leaders have also denied Macron's statement. "There will be no ground troops, no soldiers sent there by European states or NATO countries on Ukrainian soil," stated German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk noted, "Poland does not plan to send its troops to Ukraine." Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala declared that his country "definitely does not want to send its soldiers there." Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto supported European leaders, writing on his Facebook page, "The war must be stopped, not deepened and expanded." The United Kingdom has no such plans either, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Tuesday, as reported by CNN.
Previously, on February 27, Macron stated that countries might soon send their troops to Ukraine to support Kyiv against Moscow.
"Today, there is no consensus regarding the official, presumed, and approved deployment of ground troops. But nothing can be ruled out in the future," Macron said following a summit in Paris, adding that such a possibility "is mentioned among the options" for supporting Kyiv.
He mentioned, "Many people who say 'never' today were two years ago excluding the idea of sending tanks, planes, and long-range missiles to Ukraine." Macron suggested acknowledging that the EU "often lags six to twelve months behind" in providing help.
The day before, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico mentioned that some NATO countries are considering sending their troops to Ukraine under bilateral agreements. According to him, such a decision would lead to an escalation of the conflict. Fico did not specify which countries he was referring to but assured that Slovak soldiers would not be in Ukraine, even if it cost him his position.
Following Fico's statement, the European Commission noted that EU countries should decide independently on the type of military support to provide to Kyiv. They clarified that EU countries have already provided military aid to Ukraine amounting to more than 28 billion euros. "We consistently state that Ukraine needs more and more urgent military assistance," emphasized the European Commission.
Previously, NATO and the EU stated they do not consider deploying their troops to Ukraine, as they do not wish to become participants in the military conflict. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has stated that Russia began a "military operation" against the "Kyiv regime," but now it is "effectively a war between Moscow and the collective West."
