‘Keep supporting Kyiv’

WEST MUST NOT SHOW WEAKNESS BUT STOP RUSSIAN TROOPS ‘Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero.’

French President Emmanuel Macron warned allies against imposing limits on support for Ukraine, saying European security was at stake in Kyiv’s battle against Russia.

With Ukraine suffering military setbacks since the failure of a counteroffensive last boreal summer, Macron had last month shocked some allies by not ruling out sending Western troops to Ukraine.

He said in an interview with French television aimed at clarifying his policy, that the sending of ground forces was not on the agenda now but Europe had to keep “all options” open in case the war spread.

Macron’s comments came as he prepared yesterday to travel to Berlin for a summit on Ukraine with allies German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

He rammed home his insistence that Europe should not show weakness and do everything it could to stop Russia winning a war that threatened the security of French and European citizens.

“If Russia wins this war, Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero,” Macron said in the interview with French broadcasters TF1 and France 2 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.

In a post-interview statement, Macron said Russia would not halt its territorial ambitions if it wins its war in Ukraine, posing a threat to the neighbouring countries of Moldova, Romania and Poland.

“Russia has become a power that wants to expand and it’s clear that it will not stop there,” Macron posted on X. “If we abandon Ukraine, if we let Ukraine lose this war, Russia will surely threaten Moldova, Romania, Poland.”

Macron acknowledged that negotiations would need to take place once the war ended but emphasised that peace did not mean the “capitulation” of Ukraine.

“Today, we must have – to quote Winston Churchill – ‘the sinews of peace’. To want peace is not to want defeat or to let Ukraine fall,” he said, quoting the phrase used by the British premier in a 1946 speech in the United States shortly after World War II ended.

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.

He warned that “if Russia wins, the life of the French will change. We will have no more security in Europe.”

Macron, who has held many hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the Kremlin chief could not be trusted. –