Macron Keeps Options Open On Sending Troops To Ukraine, Riling Allies
With additional U.S. aid stalled and Ukraine struggling on the battlefield, Europe asks how far it would go to defend Kyiv
Paralysis in Washington over additional military aid to Ukraine is driving at least one European leader to push the boundaries of how far the continent is willing to go in supporting Ukraine—even the possibility, however remote, of deploying troops.
That dynamic was cast into sharp relief at the end of a summit that French President Emmanuel Macron hastily organized late Monday in an attempt to show Russian President Vladimir Putin that European capitals have no intention of backing down. Europe has struggled to expand its military aid to a level that would replace the flow of arms from Washington, by far Kyiv’s biggest supplier. But that didn’t stop Macron, a leader with a history of controversial off-the-cuff remarks, from stirring the pot.
Asked whether leaders at the summit had discussed the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, Macron said: “Everything was discussed this evening, in a very free and direct manner. There is no consensus today to officially send, take responsibility for and endorse ground troops. But in terms of options nothing should be ruled out.”
Macron’s remarks were a departure from the reticence Western allies have shown in even talking about sending their soldiers to Ukraine. Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic said they didn’t have any plans to send troops after Macron spoke, and the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization told the Associated Press “there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
Still, Macron’s comments didn’t escape notice in Moscow.
“The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Asked whether Western countries sending troops to Ukraine could lead to a direct conflict with NATO, Peskov said: “In this case, we need to talk not about probability, but about inevitability, and that’s how we evaluate it.”
Macron hosted the summit amid rising anxieties among European allies over battlefield setbacks. The fall of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka to Russian forces has demoralized many European officials who are under pressure to fill critical shortages in ammunition that have hamstrung Ukrainian forces.
Europe is also fretting over the possibility of Donald Trump winning the presidential election in November and as support for Ukraine wanes among Republicans in Congress.
The Senate passed a $95 billion foreign-aid package that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and billions to replenish the Pentagon’s weapons stocks. But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has criticized the Senate bill and suggested it is unlikely to get a vote in its current form.
Macron declined to say which countries discussed sending troops to Ukraine at the Paris summit, adding that France was maintaining a position of “strategic ambiguity” regarding its own planning.
“Nothing should be excluded in pursuit of our goal: Russia cannot and must not win this war,” he said.
Macron has long championed the idea that Europe needs to develop “strategic autonomy” from the U.S. and other great military powers by banding together militarily to buy weapons and develop the continent’s defense industry.
Macron said leaders attending the Paris summit agreed to form a coalition to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine. He said France also backed a Czech plan to send badly needed ammunition to Ukraine. Czech officials said they sourced 800,000 shells, which include both NATO-standard as well as Soviet-era munitions, from manufacturers and governments across the world.
Macron said a sense of “collective humility” was required in exploring all options, including any troop deployments, noting how far European capitals have already come since the start of the war in ramping up support for Ukraine.
“Many people who say today: ‘never, never’ were the same people who said two years ago: ‘Never, never tanks, never planes, never long-range missiles,’” Macron said. “I remind you that two years ago, many around this table said: ‘We are going to offer sleeping bags and helmets.’”
On Tuesday Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, flanked by his Czech counterpart, told a news conference in Prague that Poland, along with the Czech Republic, has no plans to send its soldiers to Ukraine.
“I think today we should not be speculating about the future, whether or not circumstances cause us to change this position. Today we should be concentrating, as the Polish or Czech government does, to maximally support Ukraine in its armed effort,” Tusk said.
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country has long been the second-biggest supplier of aid and weapons to Ukraine after the U.S., has been increasingly critical of other European nations’ meager contributions to Kyiv’s defense. Ahead of his trip to Paris, Scholz said that what Europeans planned to provide to Ukraine this and next year was “dramatically little.”
On Tuesday, Scholz made it clear Germany opposed any suggestion that European forces could be sent to Ukraine. “We agreed that everyone must do more for Ukraine in Paris yesterday. Ukraine needs weapons, ammunition and air defence. We are working on it. It is clear: there will be no ground troops from European countries or NATO,” he wrote in a social media post.
Write to Stacy Meichtry at Stacy.Meichtry@wsj.com, Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com and Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com
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