Stéphane Séjourné wanted to be reassuring the day after Emmanuel Macron's statements stating that the sending of Western troops in the future cannot “be excluded” in Ukraine.
This presence would not cross “the threshold of belligerence”, assured Tuesday the head of French diplomacy, facing the deputies gathered for a session of questions to the government.
Also read: Troops in Ukraine: “Emmanuel Macron sends a series of messages”
Faced with Russia's aggressiveness, Westerners had to "consider new actions to support Ukraine", repeated Stéphane Séjourné, referring to operations such as mine clearance, cyber or "weapons production (...) on Ukrainian territory.
“Some of these actions could require a presence on Ukrainian territory without crossing the threshold of belligerence,” he said.
Berlin, London and other European allies of kyiv on Tuesday rejected Emmanuel Macron's comments.
The Kremlin, for its part, judged that it was “absolutely not in the interest of these countries” to send soldiers to Ukraine.
The mere fact of evoking this possibility constituted “a very important new element” in the conflict, added the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, while noting that there was “no consensus” on the subject among Westerners.
“Nothing should be excluded”
Monday in Paris, Emmanuel Macron recognized that there was “no consensus today to send ground troops in an official, assumed and endorsed manner”.
“But in dynamics, nothing should be excluded.
We will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” he added, saying he was “assuming” a “strategic ambiguity”.
“Many people who say
Never, never
today were the same people who said
Never tanks, never planes, never long-range missiles
two years ago,” he also stressed.
VIDEO.
Ukraine: Macron says sending troops in the future cannot “be ruled out”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz affirmed on Tuesday that “no soldier” would be sent to Ukraine by European or NATO countries: “What was decided between us from the beginning continues to be valid for the future ", namely that "there will be no troops on the ground, no soldiers sent either by European states or by NATO states on Ukrainian soil."
His Defense Minister, Oscar Pistorius, mentioned “a proposal for reflection from President Macron that apparently no one followed” on Monday.
Also read: Purchase of shells outside the EU, long-range missiles, Mirages 2000… the Europeans' plan to save Ukraine
NATO has also ruled out any sending of troops to the theater of operations.
“NATO and Allies provide unprecedented military aid to Ukraine.
We have been doing this since 2014 and shifted into high gear after the full-scale Russian invasion.
But there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine,” an Alliance official said on Tuesday.