French President Emmanuel Macron
has come under fire
for suggesting
the West might deploy troops to Ukraine.
But despite that backlash,
the leadership isn't backing down
a police source says Ukraine's allies
must debate the issue.
The source says
there are all kinds of things ruled out.
Two years ago,
there were no longer ruled out
and that France fears
giving credence to the possibility
that Russia can win all this.
After Mr.
Macron's comments,
if you remember, on Monday
and typically the French president didn't
actually say
he wanted to send troops to Ukraine,
you only said
it's being discussed with other leaders.
Here's what he told reporters
after Ukraine.
A summit
concerns the there's no consensus today
to officially send support
and to take responsibility
for troops on the ground.
But as things develop,
nothing should be off the table.
We will do everything necessary
so that Russia cannot win this war.
Forget you said you.
While most European leaders
agree on board
with the part about defeating Russia,
but the idea of sending
in their own troops, that drew backlash.
Officials
from a growing list of countries.
You can see that
in the U.K.,
Germany, Spain, Italy,
Slovakia, and Poland
all say
they have no plans
to send their forces to Ukraine.
And Nieto officials
tell CNN
the alliance won't be deploying
combat troops either.
And the Kremlin has also responded
following Mr. Macron's comments.
A spokesperson says conflict with Russia
is inevitable.
If the West sent troops to Ukraine.
And we've just seen in the last
few minutes, in fact,
that the State Department
has also commented on this.
The State Department reiterating
that President Biden has ruled out
sending U.S.
troops to fight in Ukraine in response
to Macron's comments, saying
sending Western troops to Ukraine cannot.
Obviously,
what Macron had cannot be ruled out.
So we have a response now
from the US State Department.
Melissa Bell joins me now for more.
Melissa,
I mean, it's clear,
as we've just outlined, that
the European leaders
have been pretty swift in their response
to Macron's comments.
Before we talk about
how they're responding individually,
just just frame for us
what Macron said
and how it's being received at home.
Well, essentially
what he had
to announce in his press conference,
and this was Isa
in response to a question
that was asked about whether this issue
had been raised and debated
over the course of the conference
that was held here in Paris.
Yes, it had, he said, because it was time
the debate began.
The idea is that
this should be the beginning of a debate
about whether any individual countries
and we've been speaking
to illicit sources since
some of that backlash that you mentioned.
And what Emmanuel Macron is
suggesting is not that
France should encourage
Germany or Poland or other countries
who've now said
they will not be sending troops
to Ukraine to do so.
On the contrary,
that individual countries
should be considering whether or not
they are willing to send.
Perhaps
not so much initially combat troops,
but things like
de miner's people
to help with the maintenance
of Western equipment,
border guards,
for instance, to help liberate
some Ukrainian troops
that they can be redeployed for combat.
That is the initial suggestion
that was behind
Emmanuel Macron's comments.
And I think it's important to note
that there have been words of support.
For instance, Lithuania's
foreign minister has said
that it is time to consider
all the options
that there may be among our Western
allies about what may come next.
The idea
is that two years into this war
and with things
stagnating as much as they are,
that Western allies
should be willing to consider
individually whether or not
they want to get further involved.
And I think
what the resources have been saying
is that this is important
from the point of view
of sending a signal
to Moscow of strategic ambiguity
that nothing should be off the table
in order
that Moscow should not assume
that what has been will continue
to be an essentially,
as you mentioned, Macron's
point is
that there have been so many issues
that have been on the off the table
so far,
things that have now been agreed
to F-16's,
the sending of long range missiles
and the sending of troops
should be among that ISA.
But the way he framed that,
that line
that we heard there sound like
that wasn't discussed at this summit,
and at least from what we've heard
as well, to kind of push back,
we've heard from some European leaders.
Was this even discussed at all?
He says it's time it's discussed.
Was it even discussed
We've understood that it
began to be raised
during this conference.
But of course, it will be a question
for individual countries.
For instance, France is about to begin
debating in its parliament
how it goes forward with this war,
what its consequences are for France.
And we understand that this may be a part
of the future discussions.
The suggestion
was that debate began about this issue,
and this should now
be a debate and a consideration
for individual countries,
not that NATO with the European
Union should send troops in,
but that individual allies
may now consider something that
until now
had been something of a red line.
And I think the response from Moscow,
the very strong response to this was
that would inevitably lead
to a confrontation
between NATO and Russia
is an indication from the point of view
that that message has been heard,
that everything is possible
and that they need to be paying
attention is a very important context.
There from Melissa Bell in Paris.
Great to have you on.
Melissa, thank you very much.
Let's get more analysis on this.
I'm joined now by Renee Montagne.
She's a research fellow
for European Foreign Policy
and security
at the International Institute
for Strategic Studies.
Welcome back to the show.
You would have seen.
You would have heard there,
Melissa Bell
talking about this in detail,
but you would have seen
the European leaders
being kind of very swift,
very quick as well,
and tough on their response themselves.
Re trying to distance
distance themselves
just to say, from Macron.
What do you make,
first of all,
of how Macron framed it here?
So for you
know, unlike his usual way of talking,
McCall was pretty prudent in the way
he answered the question.
What had happened
is that before this conference,
that he had organized
with about 20 heads of state
and government,
mainly from Europe,
to look at how European countries can do
more to support Ukraine
in its fight for survival.
The Slovak prime minister
had raised this issue of possibly
sending Western troops to Ukraine.
He had not talked about Western troops
engaging
in any kind of line
combat, of course, against Russian
troops.
And so at the presser,
Emmanuel Macron was asked to comment
on that statement
by the Slovak prime minister,
and he basically said
this had come up
during their conversations
and their discussions
during that conference
and that nothing could be ruled out
and that the main message should be
to send to Russia.
Is that the
the Europeans are going to do everything
that is necessary
in order to ensure
that Russia doesn't win.
So he was quite noncommittal because.
Go ahead.
Yeah. No, no.
I was going to say,
I mean, that is a message that we keep.
We have been hearing that there has been
it does seem to be a
shift, at least in tone.
I mean, I don't know
if you had Melissa saying that
at least a police source
telling CNN the question of his ally
sending troops to Ukraine
is, quote, a debate that we must have.
So clearly not backing down at all.
But we've all we have heard
in the last few hours,
I should say, support also
from some allies.
Well,
a friend of the show here,
the Lithuanian foreign minister,
who said I'm going to bring it up.
Europe's fate is being decided
on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Times like these require
political leadership, ambition
and courage to think out of the box.
The initiative
behind the Paris meeting
yesterday is well worth considering.
So not complete.
I mean, some believing,
like Landsbergis,
this might
this might be the moment
to start talking about it.
To be honest,
some aspects
of this idea have been discussed
among the allies
for the past couple of weeks
in various fora,
not necessarily
at the highest levels,
but there have been some testing grounds
to see who might be willing to do this.
And what they might be willing to do.
Of course,
everyone has in mind
that they don't want to lead
to any kind of escalation,
any kind of direct combat,
any kind of direct contact between
Western military and Russian military.
So that is front of mind.
They're also looking about
at the rules of engagement.
If they send in trainers, for example,
to train Russian troops,
which, by the way,
they have been doing in Poland,
they have been doing in the U.K.,
they have been doing in Germany.
If they decide to move that training,
say, to the western side of Ukraine,
you know, parts closer to the Polish
border.
Does that really change things?
And how can they do it in a way
that is safe
and that does not escalate
the situation with Russia?
Very serious. People are looking at this.
They're also looking at doing,
as Melissa had said,
you know,
any kind of
support it would de-mining
and other such activities.