French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that limiting support for Ukraine in its war against Russia could lead to Kyiv's defeat and destroy Europe's credibility and security.
“If Russia wins this war, Europe's credibility will be reduced to zero,” Macron said in an interview with French broadcasters TF1 and France Television.
Calling the conflict in Ukraine “existential for our Europe and for France,” Macron said anybody advocating “limits” on aid to Ukraine “chooses defeat.”
He said there had been “too many limits in our vocabulary” since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“Two years ago we said we would never send tanks. We did. Two years ago, we said we would never send medium-range missiles. We did,” he said.
“Those who say ‘let's not support Ukraine’ do not make the choice of peace, they make the choice of defeat,” he added.
For France “all options” are on the table in its support for Ukraine, Macron said.
“Should the situation get worse, we will be ready” to prevent a Russian victory, but he also said his country would “never go on the offensive” in the war.
“We will never take the initiative,” he said.
‘Not in that situation’
Macron caused controversy last month when he said committing ground troops to Ukraine was not ruled out.
Xi, Macron to Discuss Ukraine During China Leader's Visit
His remark found little echo among allies, but also among the French population, with 68 percent disapproving of such an announcement, according to an opinion poll for the daily Le Figaro.
A majority in both houses of parliament backed Macron’s Ukraine strategy this week, with the far-right RN party abstaining and the radical left voting against, with its deputies accusing Macron of “war-mongering.”
Asked Thursday about sending ground troops to Ukraine, Macron replied: “We are not in that situation today.”
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal this week warned that a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin would be a “disaster” for French households’ purchasing power because food and energy prices would soar.
An opinion poll published this month by La Tribune daily points to a weakening of French public support for economic and financial aid for Ukraine, with favorable opinions falling by 11 percentage points from June last year to just 39 percent now.
Around 79 percent meanwhile said that they were against sending combat troops to Ukraine, and 47 percent stated that they also did not want French troops to undertake training missions in Ukraine.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
Comments (3)
Throughout this war I have maintained two viewpoints which, when combined, do not fit the fashionable but untenable 'leader of the free world' narrative I have opposed all my life about my country the USA's role in the world.
One is that obviously Ukraine has to win this war on Ukraine's terms or Europe will have hell to pay.
The other is that Europe actively (once again) engineering its own destruction is just another day in Europe, and none of America's business to intervene in, never has been and never will be. Our ancestors left Europe for very good reasons, and until the enduring toxin of European intrigues and upheavals are left in Europe where they belong, and for Europeans to deal with, Europe will remain a poison in American life and a threat to the future of my country.
So you go, Manny Mack of France. As European heads of state stepping up at long last goes, this American says it's long overdue. Ukraine has one enemy already, it isn't benefiting at all from its other enemy of American ignorance and cowardice in foreign affairs that never were any of our business.
@Incredulousiconoclast, of course, if Europe is none of the USA's business, then Israel (which is about 2,000km further away) is even less so. And Taiwan (which is about 1,500km further away from the contiguous United States than Israel) is even less again the USA's business. As long as you're a consistent isolationist.
It is sad to see the cowardice and narrow-mindedness of Western European voters. And as for France in particular, was life in the occupied zone of France from July 1940 to September 1944 really so attractive? Meredith Smith writes in ‘The Civilian Experience in German Occupied France, 1940-1944’: “The experience of ignominious defeat and occupation precipitated a crisis in French manhood, a nationwide emasculation. This crisis was augmented by the gender disparity that persisted throughout the occupation. Some 1,400,000 Frenchmen had been taken prisoner in 1940 and were held in Germany throughout the war. The dearth of young men was then filled by German soldiers. These soldiers “eagerly anticipated” dalliances with French women during their time there. That the Germans essentially replaced Frenchmen as the sexual partners of French women must have further unmanned and disgraced the French.”
"If Russia wins this war, Europe's credibility will be reduced to zero"
True