As of: February 28, 2024, 2:59 p.m
By: Michael Kister
Comments
Press
Split
Emmanuel Macron does not rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine.
But some units from the West are said to have been active there for a long time.
Paris – Emmanuel Macron caused a small earthquake in Europe.
At an international summit in Paris, the French president toyed with the idea that Ukraine's supporters could send not only material but also ground troops to the attacked country.
There was promptly criticism from decision-makers from all over Europe, especially from the traffic light coalition, who immediately categorically ruled out such a step.
A senior European defense official told the
Financial Times
in this context ,
Macron simply wanted to deter Russia with his move and create strategic ambiguity.
“Everyone knows that Western special forces are in Ukraine – it just hasn’t been officially confirmed yet,” the man continued.
With this, the official threw out information that has been speculated about since April 2023.
As part of a leak of secret US material, a document dated March 23 of the same year was published that lists how many special forces from which countries are supposed to be deployed in Ukraine.
The United Kingdom is said to have had the largest contingent on site at this time with 50 troops.
Latvia appears on the list with 17, France with 15 and the USA with 14 special forces, while 1 Dutch military member is also listed.
Are there Western special forces from NATO countries in Ukraine?
© imago stock&people
England and the USA indirectly confirm Western ground troops in Ukraine
In the wake of the leak, the
New York Times
reported that some affected documents had been manipulated, but others had not.
At this time, the UK Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the matter.
The reaction from 10 Downing Street to Emmanuel Macron's recent comments now appears to indirectly confirm the presence of British troops in Ukraine.
“Beyond the small number of forces in the country supporting the armed forces, we have no plans to deploy troops on a large scale,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government.
The U.S. Department of Defense also confirmed in July 2023 that members of the United States Armed Forces located in Ukraine would receive hazard pay retroactive to April 24, 2022, military and defense news magazine
Task & Purpose
reported.
At the same time, however, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Garron Garn said that at this time US military personnel were only serving to protect their own country's embassy in Ukraine.
That's nothing special.
According to the most recent report from the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Manpower Data Center, as of December 2023, seven Army and one Navy personnel, as well as 10 Marines and one Pentagon civilian employee, were in Ukraine.
However, the paper does not specify what tasks they carried out.
If what Lt. Col. Garn said in July is still true, then they would all be assigned to the American embassy in Kiev.
Foreign mercenaries: Russia sees itself in conflict with NATO
Russia has long assumed that NATO interfered in the Ukraine war.
At the beginning of February, for example, the state newspaper
Rossiyskaya Gazeta
twisted statements by Austrian military expert Markus Reisner as if he had said that NATO soldiers were fighting covertly as mercenaries in Ukraine.
The media company Correctiv researched that this is probably not the case.
However , a report from the Russian state news agency
Tass
on February 28th could rekindle allegations of Kremlin propaganda.
According to her, Russia has so far opened cases against 593 mercenaries from 46 countries who are accused of fighting against Vladimir Putin's troops in Ukraine.
Among them are Americans, British and Germans.
French Foreign Minister clarifies Macron's comments on ground troops
In order to counter international criticism and possibly also to prevent Russian accusations, the French foreign minister tried to be less ambiguous than his president soon after Emmanuel Macron's comments.
Stéphane Séjourné made it clear that the French head of state had not spoken about sending troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia.
Instead, he was concerned with defending against cyber attacks, joint weapons production in Ukraine and clearing mines, each of which could require the presence of troops in Ukraine.
(MicKis)