Germany, Poland say troops won’t be deployed in Ukraine
BRUSSELS — European military heavyweights Germany and Poland affirmed Tuesday they would not be sending troops to Ukraine, after reports that some Western countries may be considering doing so as the war with Russia enters its third year.
The head of NATO also said the U.S.-led military alliance has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, after other central European leaders confirmed that they, too, would not be providing soldiers.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, warned that a direct conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable if the alliance sends combat troops.
“In this case, we need to talk not about probability but about the inevitability (of conflict),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Moscow’s warning came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron said sending in Western ground troops should not be “ruled out” in the future, after hosting a conference of top officials from more than 20 of Ukraine’s Western backers.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeared to have a different view of what happened in Paris. He said participants had agreed “there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil who are sent there by European states or NATO states.”
Scholz said there was also consensus “that soldiers operating in our countries also are not participating actively in the war themselves.”
With Macron increasingly looking isolated and opposition politicians in France furiously critical of his suggestion that ground troops might be considered, the French president’s government subsequently sought Tuesday to clarify his comments.
French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said there had been discussions but no consensus at the conference about carrying out demining and military training operations in Ukraine, away from the front lines.
“It’s not sending troops to wage war against Russia,” the minister said.
The idea of sending troops has been taboo, particularly as NATO seeks to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nucleararmed Russia. Nothing prevents NATO members from joining such an undertaking individually or in groups, but the organization itself would only get involved if all 31 members agree.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said “NATO allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. … But there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
At a meeting in Prague on Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, “Poland does not plan to send its troops to Ukraine.” Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic insisted his country “certainly doesn’t want to send its soldiers.”
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has said his government is not planning to propose a deployment but that some countries were weighing whether to strike bilateral deals to provide troops to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion.
While ruling out NATO military action, Stoltenberg told the Associated Press “this is a war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine,” that blatantly violates international law.
“According to international law, Ukraine of course has the right to selfdefense, and we have the right to support them in upholding that right,” Stoltenberg said.