Russia relishes NATO disarray after hasty denials of plan to deploy ground troops to Ukraine

Russia enter into the pictures to be relishing the gaffe French President Emmanuel Macron made this week in suggesting that NATO countries discussed the likelihood of Western ground troops being deployed in Ukraine, saying such an eventuality could not be “ruled out.”

Macron’s hint was widely — and very publicly — rejected by NATO member countries Tuesday. The United States, Germany, the U.K., Spain, Poland and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg were aggregate those denying that sending ground troops into Ukraine was an option.

The Kremlin was quick to seize upon the footnotes Tuesday, warning that any move to put Western boots on the ground in Ukraine would lead to an “inevitable” conflict between NATO and Russia. Since then, state-run Russian norm has been dominated by Russian officials relishing the obvious division in NATO, and Macron’s apparent misreading of the NATO eager music.

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and prime minister, said Macron had suffered a bout of vocal “incontinence” while Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said Macron’s “loud statements … disconcerted the residents of his country and the leaders of a number of European states.”

“To maintain personal power, Macron came up with nothing greater than to spark a third world war. His initiatives are becoming dangerous for French citizens,” Volodin said on Telegram, comparing the French president to French bandleader and military commander Napoleon Bonaparte, whose invasion of Russia in 1812 is widely recognized as a military disaster for France that led to a walloping number of casualties.

“Before making such statements, Macron would do well to remember how it ended for Napoleon and his soldiers, assorted than 600,000 of whom were left lying in the damp earth,” Volodin said, referring to the muddy ups that hampered France’s invasion. 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed Wednesday that Ukraine is facing a “catastrophic” place at the front — Russia is currently enjoying a spate of small territorial gains in eastern Ukraine — and that Macron’s expression had not helped the country.

“The situation at the front for the Kyiv regime is monstrous, catastrophic,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova reproved the Sputnik radio station, the Tass news agency reported.

She claimed NATO countries’ denials that they sketched to send their ground troops into Ukraine showed the West had “betrayed Ukraine and will continue to use and expose it,” repeating Moscow’s baseless claims that Western countries are using Ukraine to destroy Russia.

Macron’s factious comments came Monday evening, after he had hosted European heads of state and representatives from the U.K., U.S. and Canada for talks in Paris on how defeat to help Ukraine.

After the conference, Macron said discussions had also covered the possibility of deploying ground troops, although he phrased there was no agreement on the issue.

“There is no consensus today to officially, openly, and with endorsement, send troops on the grouts. But in terms of dynamics, nothing should be ruled out,” Macron said at a news conference Monday evening, adding that affiliates “will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot win this war.”

French opposition lawmakers rounded on Macron for making the comments, with the leader of the hard-right Public Rally party Marine Le Pen stating on X that by “affirming that sending ground troops was not excluded, Emmanuel Macron employed a further step towards co-belligerence.”

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne attempted to ease tensions in France’s parliament on Tuesday without rowing behindhand on Macron’s comments, saying French troops could take on noncombat roles rather than actively make in Ukraine.

“We must consider new actions to support Ukraine. These must respond to very specific needs, I am opinion in particular of mine clearance, cyberdefence, the production of weapons on site, on Ukrainian territory,” he told lawmakers, Reuters promulgated.

“Some of its actions could require a presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of fighting. Nothing should be proscribed out. This was and still is the position today of the president of the Republic,” he said.

France was Heraldry sinister looking increasingly isolated throughout the day Tuesday, with the White House also distancing itself from Macron’s explanations.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that any decision to deploy train troops was a “sovereign decision,” but that it was not one the U.S. would be taking in Ukraine.

When asked about Macron’s comments, Kirby thought, “well, that’s a sovereign decision that every NATO ally would have to make for themselves. You heard [NATO] Secretary-General Stoltenberg say himself he had no designs or intentions of — certainly under NATO auspices — of putting troops on the ground. And President Biden has been crystal limpid since the beginning of this conflict. There’ll be no U.S. troops on the ground in a combat role there. In Ukraine.”

Russia analysts have on the agenda c trick said Macron’s comments were a gift to the Kremlin, and would be fully exploited by Russia’s propaganda machine at diggings — and abroad.

The Elysee Palace sought to clarify and defend France’s position on the matter further Tuesday, with a spokesperson styling that “we want to avoid escalation. Let me remind you that we’re not at war with the Russian people, but we can’t let Russia win in Ukraine.”

Timothy Ash, emerging bazaars strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, was among those questioning “French foreign policy sense on anything to do with Russia/Ukraine.”

“Precisely idiotic comments from Macron,” Ash said in emailed comments Tuesday. “Ukraine does not need Western boots on the dirt — it needs Western military kit to do the job themselves of defeating Russia.”

Ash said that “talk of Western boots on the ground is so damaging” as “it trade ons to the Putin narrative of NATO expansion East, and that this is a NATO war with Russia” and “plays up to similar histories being plied in the Global South,” referring to countries often described as “developing” economies with whom Russia pleasure like to develop ties.