Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Two years after Russia launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, 2023, the US-led West’s bravado and sanctions have largely failed to be disruptive. On the contrary, Washington and its NATO allies seem exhausted from aiding Ukraine with money and arms, and the anti-Russian coalition’s disarray is out in the open.
The media reported on Tuesday that Russia seems to be relishing the gaffe French President Emmanuel Macron made this week in suggesting that NATO countries discussed the possibility of Western ground troops being deployed in Ukraine, saying such an eventuality could not be “ruled out.”
But Macron’s suggestion was widely — and very publicly — rejected by NATO member countries on Tuesday, leaving France looking red-faced and isolated.
The United States, Germany, the U.K., Spain, Poland, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg were among those denying that sending ground troops into Ukraine was an option.
The Kremlin quickly warned that any move to put Western boots on the ground in Ukraine would lead to an “inevitable” conflict between NATO and Russia. Since then, Russian officials have relished the obvious division in NATO and Macron’s apparent misreading of the NATO mood music.
Former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Macron had suffered a bout of verbal “incontinence” while Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the French President’s “loud statements” “horrified the residents of his own country and the leaders of several European states.”
“To maintain personal power, Macron came up with nothing better than to spark a third world war. His initiatives are becoming dangerous for French citizens,” Volodin said on Telegram, comparing the French president to the early 19th-century French Emperor and military commander Napoleon Bonaparte, whose invasion of Russia in 1812 is widely recognized as a military disaster for France that led to a massive number of casualties.
“Before making such statements, Macron would do well to remember how it ended for Napoleon and his soldiers, more than 600,000 of whom were left lying in the damp earth,” Volodin said, referring to the muddy conditions that hampered France’s invasion of an inhospitable Russia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed on Wednesday that Ukraine is facing a “catastrophic” situation at the front — Russia is currently enjoying a spate of small territorial gains in eastern Ukraine — and that Macron’s statement had not helped the country.
“The situation at the front for the Kyiv regime is monstrous, catastrophic,” ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, the media reported.
She claimed NATO countries’ denials that they planned to send their ground troops into Ukraine showed the West had “betrayed Ukraine and will continue to use and betray it,” repeating Moscow’s claims that Western countries are using Ukraine to destroy Russia.
Macron’s controversial comments came on Monday evening after he had hosted European heads of state and representatives from the U.K., U.S., and Canada for talks in Paris on how best to help Ukraine.
After the conference, Macron said discussions had also covered the possibility of deploying ground troops, although he said there was no agreement on the issue.
“There is no consensus today to officially, openly, and with endorsement, send troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing should be ruled out,” Macron said on Monday evening, adding that allies “will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot win this war.”
French opposition lawmakers rounded on Macron for making these controversial comments, with the leader of the hard-right National Rally party Marine Le Pen commenting on X (formerly Twitter) that by “affirming that sending ground troops was not excluded, Emmanuel Macron took a further step towards co-belligerence.”
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne attempted to ease tensions in France’s parliament on Tuesday without rowing back on Macron’s comments, saying French troops could take on non-combat roles rather than actively battle in Ukraine.
“We must consider new actions to support Ukraine. These must respond to very specific needs, I am thinking in particular of mine clearance, cyber defense, the production of weapons on site, on Ukrainian territory,” he told lawmakers.
“Some of its actions could require a presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of fighting. Nothing should be ruled out. This was and still is the President’s position today,” he said.
France was left looking increasingly isolated throughout Tuesday, with the White House also distancing itself from Macron’s comments.
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that any decision to deploy ground troops was a “sovereign decision,” but that it was not one the U.S. would be taking in Ukraine.
When asked about Macron’s comments, Kirby said “Well, that’s a sovereign decision that every NATO ally would have to make for themselves. You heard (NATO) Secretary General Stoltenberg say himself he had no plans or intentions of — certainly under NATO auspices —putting troops on the ground. And President Biden has been crystal clear since the beginning of this conflict. There’ll be no U.S. troops on the ground in a combat role there. In Ukraine.”
Russian analysts have said Macron’s comments were a gift to the Kremlin and would be fully exploited by Russia’s propaganda machine at home — and abroad.
The Elysee Palace in Paris sought to clarify and defend France’s position on the matter further on Tuesday, with a spokesperson stating that “we want to avoid escalation. Let me remind you that we’re not at war with the Russian people, but we can’t let Russia win in Ukraine.”
Timothy Ash, emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, remarked: “Literally idiotic comments from Macron,” “Ukraine does not need Western boots on the ground — it needs Western military kit to do the job themselves of defeating Russia.”
He said that “any talk of Western boots on the Ukrainian ground is so damaging” as “it plays to the Putin narrative of NATO expansion in the East, and that this is a NATO war with Russia” and “plays up to similar narratives being plied in the Global South,” referring to countries often described as “developing” economies with whom Russia would like to develop ties.
“What the U.S. public does not want is U.S. boots on the ground in another foreign conflict. But the beauty of Western support for Ukraine thus far is that it has not required Western boots on the ground, but through a modest financial outlay has had a devastating impact on Russian military capability,” Ash said.