Macron’s gaffe forces Kyiv to wait for weapons
EMMANUEL MACRON’S latest masterstroke appears to have brought the West ever closer to the prospect of nuclear war with Russia.
His suggestion earlier this week that Nato troops could be sent to Ukraine offered Vladimir Putin an open goal.
The Russian despot didn’t miss. The French president’s suggestions would bring about nuclear armageddon, he said in his state of the nation address yesterday. Mr Macron might as well have written Putin’s speech for him.
His big idea was a clumsy bid to grab a leadership role for France in the fight for Ukraine. But its consequences go further than simply handing Putin a propaganda coup.
The French president’s intervention laid bare divisions in Nato, which has always insisted there would never be boots on the ground in Ukraine.
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretarygeneral, was forced to issue a denial that any such plans existed, as Downing Street also rejected the idea.
As Europe’s leaders either rejected Mr Macron or rallied behind him, the West’s united front against Putin looked anything but. That matters when war fatigue is biting and US support for Ukraine hangs in the balance of the presidential election.
Mr Macron has a decidedly patchy record on Putin-whispering. But it’s important for French presidents to still be seen as global players for domestic political reasons.
Mr Macron hoped to shore up European support for Kyiv as he hosted a summit in Paris.
Instead, he widened the division between him and Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, which is Europe’s leading donor to Ukraine.
Working together, they would be valuable allies for Ukraine. But Mr Scholz, who is unhappy at France’s comparatively small weapons donations, said there will be no Nato or EU soldiers on Ukrainian soil.
His mood won’t have been helped by Mr Macron trying to pressure him into sending Taurus missiles to Kyiv. They would give Ukraine the ability to hit Moscow – something Mr Scholz has ruled out for fear of the war escalating.
Ukraine now faces a longer wait for vital weapons, while it is losing the land war against Russia.
Meanwhile, Putin can sow further disquiet among the West. It’s a result that even Mr Macron might be forced to admit is suboptimal at best.