throughout the two years of war in
Ukraine few things seem as intense as
the turnaround by French president
Emanuel macron from a stance of let's
not humiliate Russia and handing out
carrots to Moscow by way of let's
negotiate and get along we've switched
to a menu that is let's just say a
little more spicy Emmanuel macron calls
for an effort to ensure the defeat of
Russia at a meeting of Ukraine's allies
on Monday in Paris the French President
announced new measures to supply more
weapons to Kiev and spoke of the
hypothesis of a dispatch of Western
troops in the
future indeed macron has not only
suggested that NATO needs to consider
sending troops to Ukraine but has set
out the situations in which France
itself would do so as reported by the
French daily L de bondon macron has met
with the rest of France's parliamentary
forces and told them that he is ready to
jump in and send troops to Ukraine if
the Russian military manages to score
any goals in other words if they Advance
towards strategic cities such as Odessa
or keev mcon has even gone so far as to
ask the rest of the European countries
not to be cowards but what could explain
such a U-turn why is macron now saying
that France could go so far as to send
soldiers to Ukraine I'm sure that in the
last few weeks many of you have asked
yourselves a similar question what the
hell is going on well that's what we at
visual politic are here for so let's get
into
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it visual politic Community it is said
that during an event in Paris held on
21st of February at the pantheon of the
illustrious mcon told a group of guests
and I quote literally next next year I'm
going to have to send some guys to
Odessa just 5 days later on 26th of
February the French president said
publicly that it could not be ruled out
that NATO may have to intervene directly
in Ukraine many people who say never
never today were the same people who
said never tanks never planes never long
range missiles of course these words
generated a huge political storm at home
a storm with thunder and lightning but
with a lot of criticism Emanuel macron
plays warlord but it is our children's
lives he's talking about so carelessly
and not only at home but also from
abroad Germany rebuffs Emanuel macron on
troops for Ukraine and tells Paris to
supply more weapons however far from
backing down macron has continued to
push in the same vein for example in an
interview on French television on 14th
of March the French president was very
very clear if the situation worsens we
must be ready and we will be ready there
was an escalation by Russia and we have
to say that we are ready to respond in
this way macron is becoming one of
Ukraine's staunchest
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allies at the same time in Washington
the Republicans are blocking funding and
in Europe many governments are still not
getting their acts together macron has
promised to work for unlimited support
for keev in this vein France has
committed more than3 billion EUR in
direct military aid to Ukraine in 2024
alone this will be the year in which
France will donate the most military
Resources by the way if we take into
account that the US economy is almost 8
times the size of France's this would
amount to an outlay of about $24 billion
by Washington and that's not counting
European Union funding remember we're
talking about just one country I'm
saying this for all those who say that
Europe is taking advantage of the United
States in the matter of Ukraine but
let's not get bugged down that's another
story the fact is that naturally Russia
has reacted to all these moves from the
L Palace on 12th of February Paris made
public the existence of a Russian
digital Network the one known as portal
combat which had the mission to flood
French social media with false
information about the Ukrainian war and
that is not evidently all Putin himself
has once again dusted off his worn out
book of threats Russia prepared for
nuclear war warns Vladimir Putin then we
are also seeing other warnings such as
cyber attacks and even direct threats in
some cases very direct threats for
example on 22nd of February a Russian
air traffic control system threatened to
shoot down French reconnaissance planes
operating over the Black Sea so that was
a pretty clear
warning and make no mistake macron's
swerve was no small thing for a long
time it was the French president who had
the best connection and understanding
with Putin in fact it was he who played
a leading role as mediator before and
during the first months of the invasion
of Ukraine during that time the
Frenchman believed that he could
convince the Russian president to reach
a solution even he believed he could
persuade him to give up trying to win
the war paris's confidence was such that
for a long time they did not take
particularly seriously the possibility
that the war could be prolonged in fact
the French government blocked the use of
European Union funds to buy artillery
Munitions outside the community block
for months basically because they did
not think it was something that
essential and because according to them
such expenditure would not serve to
boost the European Defense industry and
they certainly didn't go all out with
the delivery of military equipment
either for example taking the French
government's own published data between
2022 and 2023 this country gave Ukraine
3.8 billion EUR in military assistance
this is far below the more than 17
billion given by Germany or the more
than 9 billion given by the United
Kingdom in the same period in other
words for a long time the leaders in
Paris were convinced that the war would
end sooner rather than later with the
reassurance of some sort of updated
Minsk pacts but visual politic Community
now all that has changed macron realized
that Putin had deceived him personally
it took some time but the result is
there eventually the French President
realized that this whole plan to
negotiate with the Kremlin for a
ceasefire right off the bat was totally
unfeasible in fact even back in
September 2022 macron had to give up his
role as mediator as futile it was at
that moment that the French President
began to be convinced that trying to
negotiate with Putin without a wild card
was a waste of time but now macron seems
to have become convinced of something
even more important either a change of
game plan is achieved or the conflict
could
escalate let me explain the problem is
that Putin is completely locked into a
war logic and unless he manages to
increase the pressure sufficiently the
war in Ukraine may never end or worse it
may end up with an attack on NATO's own
territory as we told you in a previous
video this is not just us speculating it
is something that macron himself says if
we let Ukraine lose this war then Russia
will surely threaten mova Romania Poland
and at this point let me tell you
something based on your comments in a
recent video in which we told you what a
Russian attack on NATO might look like
many of you seem to think this whole
possibility is a completely far-fetched
idea nevertheless I'm sorry to tell you
that the governments of Norway Sweden
Finland Estonia ltia Lithuania Denmark
and Poland think very differently so do
many senior German officials and by the
looks of it now macron does too if Putin
is not stopped this could end with the
worst imaginable scenario a war on NATO
soil this is exactly what intelligent
sources
say for example Estonian intelligence
Chiefs who are well known for following
very closely what is happening in Russia
and these days particularly in Ukraine
have raised the alert the Kremlin is
restructuring and expanding the
country's military in anti anticipation
of a conflict with NATO sometime in the
next 10 years but why would Putin do
that well you see here on visual politic
we have already told you about it
because an attack on NATO territory and
a conventional Warfare response could be
the kremlin's master stroke for
accomplishing its goals including the
capture of Ukraine I'll leave you the
video link with all the information in
the description that said the question
is is Russia actually preparing for such
a scenario could that be what macron is
worrying about what exactly does the
French President mean by sending troops
to Ukraine well let's take a
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look the latest
escalation visual politic Community if
the Ukrainian War has made one thing
clear to us it is that the Russian army
was a real disaster however when a large
scale war is fought two things happen on
the one hand the Army gains experience
on the other hand errors and weaknesses
are identified well that is exactly what
the Russians are working with right now
the Russian government is restructuring
the entire chain of command and also the
Armed Forces own internal Organization
for example they are dissolving The
Joint strategic commands to return to a
structure based clearly on military
branches thus the Pacific Black Sea and
Baltic fleets have been placed under the
direct command of the Navy and exactly
the same has happened with the Air Force
Leningrad and Moscow military districts
were also reestablished at the beginning
of 2024 in other words the Kremlin has
set about reforming its armed forces
from top to bottom all with one premise
to return to a much more military
intensive and NATO border Centric
military
Concept in fact the armed forces are
expanding to add 400,000 new troops to
reach 1.5 million by 2026 in other words
Russia is working intensively to expand
the size of its Armed Forces at full
speed not only in the immediate future
but above all structurally it is a
radical change of trend and the question
is for what well take a wild yes but
bear in mind that this is the opinion of
the Estonian intelligence service NATO
could face a massive Soviet style Army
in the next decade this Army is likely
to be technologically inferior to NATO
allies Defense Forces in most areas
however its military potential would be
significant due to its size Firepower
combat experience and reserves and
that's not all on top of that Russia is
gradually developing a war economy more
than a third of all public spending is
already devoted to military spending and
arms manufacturers are starting to work
around the clock want a concrete example
just take a look at the preparation of
artillery shells I am sorry to say it
but at the moment war is Vladimir
Putin's only priority and given that
he's going to have a country in a war
economy and a much larger military that
could end up leading to as we previously
said an attack on NATO soil it would be
something like the perfect pressure move
and obviously that is a serious concern
for NATO perhaps now you understand
better why mron seems to be pouring so
much gasoline on the fire because he's
saying that we need to get our acts
together urgently because he claims that
the defeat of Ukraine would put an end
to Security in Europe now if troops were
sent what exactly would we be talking
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about well let's see the first thing we
have to be clear about is that when
macron talks about sending troops he
doesn't mean sending large contingents
of thousands or hundreds of thousands of
men to fight in Ukraine that is not at
least for now under discussion at
present the suggested troop deployment
consists of the following on the one
hand to demonstrate support for Ukraine
and to make it clear to Russia that in
this war they won't have much more to
gain because they won't succeed in
turning the Ukrainian State into a
puppet of Moscow let's just say that in
this vein the presence of NATO soldiers
or the possibility of intervention would
set a very clear limit and of course it
would be a boost of optimism for the
ukrainians and a reality check for
Moscow something like Mario dragy famous
whatever it takes during the Euro crisis
in 2015 but in a foreign policy version
this would be the first goal naturally
there is also a second let's say much
more operational objective you see one
of the problems Ukraine has had in
recent months has had a lot to do with
the management of the weaponry and
military equipment delivered and also
the lack of training well along these
lines the presence of NATO troops would
have this objective first to have the
training of the troops take place in
Ukraine itself this would allow for
longer and more consistent train tring
and second to provide Specialists to
contribute to complex tasks we're
talking about tasks such as missile
management Air Force maintenance
operating electronic warfare systems and
other Advanced military equipment
selecting targets preparing for Special
Operations conducting cyber warfare and
so on and so
forth
of course this would be a major
escalation and certainly makes one thing
quite clear the French government
considers that certain red lines are
being crossed and that the danger far
from being reduced is
increasing not surprisingly Europe is
far from being unanimous about the
possibility of sending military troops
to Ukraine the German government or
rather Chancellor Schultz is strongly
opposed to it in fact the argument
Schultz is giving for denying the
delivery of the Taurus long-range
missiles requested by keev is precisely
that for their proper use they would
have to be operated by German soldiers
inside or outside Ukraine and that as
chancellor of Germany that is a red line
he is under no circumstances willing to
Cross by the way as a side the Taurus is
a long range strike missile that is
fired from a fighter aircraft and is
ideally suited to destroying robust
structures such as Bridges or bunkers
this is because its main explosive
Warhead explodes not on impact but after
it's already penetrated several layers
of material in other words it is
launched impacts the missile penetrates
the structure and then explodes what's
more it also has a longer range than the
British Storm Shadow or the French scalp
and is also extremely stealthy that is
why it is so coveted by the ukrainians
but it looks like they're going to be
left wanting the point is that on top of
the opposition of many of its European
Union Partners France has another
problem unlike dragy France lacks the
means to do whatever it takes to protect
Ukraine it is the only nuclear armed
country in the EU but has an average
military and stressed public finances
even so macron is following two
additional paths to those we have
seen he has led the signing of a
security agreement with Ukraine which
was ratified on 12th of March by the
French assembly by an overwhelming
majority besides that he is pushing for
increased production of ammunition and
military equipment throughout Europe
along these lines he has endorsed The
Proposal of the Estonian prime minister
kayak kalas that the European Union
should issue bonds and use them to
finance defensive investments in member
countries remember the tourist missiles
we spoke about a moment ago well their
production has been halted since 2019 a
disaster and that is something that
macron now wants to change the idea is
that the European military industry gets
its act together as for example Ryan
metal the large German manufacturer of
military equipment that is promoting
four new weapons factories in Ukraine is
starting to do at this point in time it
has already secured an agreement with
Germany and Poland to increase military
production and arms deliveries to
Ukraine schz mccon and Tusk agreed to
speed up arms purchases for Ukraine on
the entire Global Market but now now
that we know what ideas macron has and
why he says what he says the question is
over to you and today the question could
not be clearer what do you think of the
role that the French president has taken
in recent months do you agree or
disagree with his position how far do
you think this new momentum in France
will go leave us your thoughts down in
the comments I'm sure the debate is
going to be hotter than the European
Champions final and of course if you
found this video interesting don't
forget to like And subscribe to visual
politic thank you so very much for
watching all the best and I'll see you
next time
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