French President Emmanuel Macron is dragging his country into the conflict in Ukraine to the detriment of the French people, according to Moscow.
“Mr. Macron insists on his goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on our country [Russia],” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 7.
“He continues to raise the level of France’s direct involvement in this war,” Mr. Peskov said in televised comments.
“This in no way corresponds to the interests of the French people,” 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 shells, and long-range SCALP missiles.
Late last month, the French leader raised eyebrows when he floated the idea that European Union states could send troops to Ukraine to help fight Russian forces.
“There is no consensus at this stage to send troops on the ground,” he told reporters after a Feb. 26 meeting of European leaders in Paris.
“But nothing should be ruled out,” he stressed, adding, “We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win.”
The Paris meeting was meant to reiterate the EU’s continued support for Ukraine, which has recently suffered a series of bruising battlefield losses.
Mr. Macron’s remarks jarred with the general consensus among Kyiv’s allies, who have sought to avoid direct conflict with Russia amid fears of a global war.
Kyiv’s leading supporters—including the United States, the UK, Germany, and Poland—quickly distanced themselves from the French leader’s comments.
“Boots on the ground [in Ukraine] is not an option for Germany,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the time.
For its part, the Kremlin warned such a move would make a direct conflict between Russia and the Western NATO alliance “inevitable.”
Nevertheless, officials in Kyiv hailed Mr. Macron’s contentious assertions.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said the French leader’s comments showed “an awareness of the risks posed to Europe by a militaristic, aggressive Russia.”
Mixed Signals
Earlier this week, Mr. Macron appeared to partially walk back his remarks regarding the possible deployment of European troops to Ukraine.“In response to a question about sending troops, I merely said nothing could be ruled out,” he told Novinky, a Czech news outlet, on March 4.
“This doesn’t mean we are considering the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine in the near future,” he said.
“We are only initiating discussions … about everything that can be done to support Ukraine, especially on Ukrainian territory,” Mr. Macron added.
But he appeared to change course the following day, calling for a “strategic leap” in the West’s approach to the ongoing conflict.
Speaking in Prague on March 5, Mr. Macron urged Western capitals to redouble their support for Ukraine, telling them “not to be cowards.”
Alluding to Russia’s ongoing invasion, he said Paris and Prague were both “well aware” that “war has returned to [European] soil.”
“Certain powers,” he said, had become “unstoppable”—a presumable reference to Russia’s battlefield gains—and were “extending their threat to attack us.”
‘No Limits’
Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, later called the French president’s remarks “extremely dangerous.”“They show the high degree of political irresponsibility of today’s European leaders,” he said in televised comments.
On March 7, Mr. Macron upped the ante again, reportedly telling a meeting of French opposition leaders that Paris should have “no limits” in its approach to Moscow.
Speaking to French daily newspaper Le Monde, Green Party leader Marine Tondelier, who attended the meeting, said Mr. Macron had told attendees that France “must show [Russia] that we have no limits.”
Ms. Tondelier went on to describe the alleged remarks as “extremely worrying.”
Manuel Bompard, leader of the left-leaning La France Insoumise party, told Le Monde: “I arrived [to the meeting] worried, and I left even more worried.”
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, quickly responded to Mr. Macron’s reported comments.
“Macron has said ‘there are no more red lines, there are no more limits’ in terms of supporting Ukraine,” Mr. Medvedev wrote in a March 7 social media post.
He added, “That means Russia has no more red lines left for France.”
