"Not planned"

Ground troops in Ukraine? NATO is now reacting

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (pictured) said on Wednesday that he feared that the city of Bachmut, which has been heavily contested for months, would fall "in the next few days".

(Bild: AFP)

After French President Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out the deployment of Western soldiers in Ukraine, efforts are being made elsewhere to calm the situation. NATO is not planning to send troops, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made clear on Tuesday.

The alliance was providing "unprecedented support" in Ukraine and had increased this support after the invasion. However, the deployment of combat troops on the ground in Ukraine is not planned, Stoltenberg told the AP news agency.

Several EU countries criticized Macron's statements on Tuesday. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for example, said that "there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO states in the future."

Kremlin: "Important new element" in the conflict
The Kremlin had already reacted to Macron's statement: According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, sending troops to Ukraine would "not be in the interests" of Western countries. The fact that the possibility of ground troops is now being discussed is a "very important new element" in the conflict, Peskov emphasized on Tuesday.

Will Western soldiers be deployed to the front in Ukraine at some point? Not out of the question, as Emmanuel Macron explained.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Genya SAVILOV)

"This is absolutely not in the interests of these countries, they must be aware of that," said Peskov on Tuesday in response to a statement by French President Emmanuel Macron. However, several EU countries criticized Macron's statement. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) called for a "diplomatic perspective".

Macron: "Nothing must be ruled out"
The French head of state stated on Monday evening that the deployment of troops "cannot be ruled out". There is currently no consensus, Macron said at the end of an international Ukraine conference in Paris. "But nothing can be ruled out in order to achieve the goal."

The goal is that Russia must not win. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal underlined Macron's statements on Tuesday: "Nothing can be ruled out in a war (...) in the heart of Europe," Attal said on RTL radio.