A French proposal to send European troops to Ukraine was reportedly welcomed by Baltic officials at a recent meeting in Lithuania that received scant attention among Western media outlets.
Late last week, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne visited Lithuania, where he met with his Ukrainian, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian counterparts. At the meeting, he reportedly raised the possibility of Western troop deployments to Ukraine—an idea recently floated by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Mr. Sejourne told attendees that Kyiv “did not ask us to send troops,” according to Politico (one of the few Western outlets to cover the meeting).
“Ukraine is asking us to send ammunition at the moment,” the diplomat was cited as saying. However, echoing recent assertions by Mr. Macron, he added, “We do not exclude anything for the coming months.”
Kyiv continues to warn about its dwindling stocks of artillery rounds in the face of relentless Russian advances, especially in the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine and its allies have blamed the shortages for a series of recent battlefield setbacks, including Russia’s capture last month of the strategic town of Avdiivka.
At the meeting in Lithuania, Mr. Sejourne reportedly raised the notion of sending Western troops to Ukraine to take part in mine-clearing operations. That could mean sending “some personnel” to Ukraine—but “not to fight,” he was quoted as saying.
He also reportedly voiced concern about an alleged Russian threat to the Baltic states, which had been part of the Soviet Union before its collapse in the early 1990s.
In 2004, the three Baltic nations joined the Western NATO alliance, along with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. That same year, the Baltic states—all of which border Russian Federation territory—became full-fledged members of the European Union.
Baltic foreign ministers who attended the meeting praised Paris for “thinking outside the box,” Politico reported.
Hawkish Rhetoric
The meeting in Lithuania occurred amid increasingly hawkish rhetoric that has emanated from the Elysee Palace in recent weeks.Last month, Mr. Macron raised eyebrows—even among Kyiv’s allies—when he suggested that EU member-states could send troops to Ukraine to help fight Russian forces.
“Nothing should be ruled out,” he said at a Feb. 26 meeting of European leaders in Paris.
“We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win,” he added.
Since Russia invaded eastern Ukraine just over two years ago, France has remained one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters.
Under Mr. Macron, Paris has given Ukraine billions of euros and a range of offensive weaponry, including tanks, artillery rounds, and long-range SCALP missiles.
In mid-February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Paris, where he and Mr. Macron signed a 10-year security agreement between their two countries.
The agreement included a French pledge of 3 billion euros (almost $3.28 billion) for Ukraine’s war effort in 2024, following 1.7 billion euros in 2022 and 2.1 billion euros last year.
According to French officials, the deal also calls for stepped-up cooperation in artillery and will help pave the way for Ukraine’s eventual integration into both the EU and NATO.
Last week, Mr. Macron went even further, telling a meeting of French opposition leaders that Paris should have “no limits” in its approach to Russia’s invasion.
Speaking to the French press after the meeting, Green Party leader Marine Tondelier described Mr. Macron’s remarks as “extremely worrying.”
Other opposition leaders who attended the meeting voiced similar misgivings.
Moscow, meanwhile, accused the French leader of dragging his country into the conflict to the detriment of the French public.
“Mr. Macron continues to raise the level of France’s direct involvement in this war,” a Kremlin spokesman said on March 7. “This in no way corresponds to the interests of the French people.”
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council (and a former president and prime minister), offered a sharper response.
Mr. Macron’s statements, he warned, “mean that Russia has no more red lines left for France.”
Gaining Traction?
At last week’s meeting in Lithuania, Mr. Sejourne reportedly criticized Moscow’s reaction to the French president’s comments.“It is not for Russia to organize how we deploy our actions or to set red lines,” he was cited as saying by Politico. “We decide it among ourselves.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis reportedly stated, “We must draw red lines for Russia, not ourselves.”
“No form of support for Ukraine can be excluded,” he was quoted as saying.
After Mr. Macron’s initial remarks last month, leading NATO members—including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany—were quick to dismiss the idea of putting boots on the ground in Ukraine.
Since then, however, the hawkish proposal appears to have gained some traction.
“The presence of NATO forces in Ukraine is not unthinkable,” Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, said on March 8—the same day as the Lithuania meeting.
“I appreciate President Macron’s initiative,” he added, “because it is about [Russian President Vladimir] Putin being afraid, not us being afraid of Putin.”
