Doubts over claims of Nato troops ‘but nothing should be excluded’
The prime minister of Slovakia has claimed that Nato and EU member states are preparing to deploy troops to Ukraine.
Robert Fico, a pro-Russia populist, offered no details of how Western soldiers could be sent to assist Ukraine, and commentators said he was probably just trying to stir up trouble.
He was speaking ahead of a hastily-arranged meeting of European leaders in Paris, a gather he said implied that “a number of Nato and EU member states are considering that they will send their troops to Ukraine on a bilateral basis”, Fico said.
“I cannot say for what purpose and what they should be doing there,” he said, adding that Slovakia, a member of the EU and Nato, would not be sending soldiers to Ukraine.
Fico said the move could risk an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, but could not offer more information.
Nato allies have spent billions of dollars providing arms to Kyiv and are training Ukrainian forces in the West, but Western capitals have refused to consider boots on the ground to avoid entering a direct conflict with Russia.
Fico was among Western leaders attending the talks in Paris to counter the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia is bound to win a war now entering its third year.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, hosted the leaders of 17 EU countries, as well as ministers and officials from the UK, US and Canada.
Following the meeting, Macron announced that a new coalition would be created to supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles and munitions, adding that not even the sending of Western ground troops to fight the Russian invasion should be ruled out.
“There is no consensus today to send ground troops... but nothing should be excluded,” Macron said after the meeting in Paris.
Meanwhile, Russian troops continue to advance, the Institute for the Study of War reported. The US think-tank said Moscow’s forces had made gains near Bakhmut, Avdiivka and western Zaporizhzhia.
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death, says a Navalny ally.
Maria Pevchikh said talks about exchanging Navalny and two unnamed US nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian FSB security service hit man in jail in Germany, had been in their final stages.
Pevchikh did not name the two US nationals.
But the US has said it is trying to return Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine.
Navalny’s team have appealed for help to find a hall where his body could be laid out for a public farewell ceremony this week.
Antonio Guterres, the UN chief, says the UN Security Council’s failures on Gaza and Ukraine had “perhaps fatally” undermined its authority.
“The council needs serious reform to its composition and working methods,” he said at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Hungary’s parliament voted yesterday in favour of Sweden’s long-delayed bid to join Nato.
Sweden is set to become Nato’s 32nd member, possibly within the week.
However, the expansion of Nato has come only after many months of obstruction from Turkey, followed by continued delays by Hungary.