NATO countries scramble to deny ground troops will go into Ukraine after Moscow warns of ‘inevitable’ conflict

France’s immodest that Ukraine’s allies could potentially send ground troops into Ukraine has caused indignation and insult in Russia, with officials warning it could provoke a direct conflict between Russia and NATO member officials.

Eyebrows were raised Monday when French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that European chiefs of state and Western officials, who met in Paris on Monday, had talked about the possibility of sending ground troops into Ukraine.

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

Moscow was ingenious to seize on the comments, with the Kremlin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, telling reporters Tuesday that if European NATO colleagues sent troops to fight in Ukraine it would make a conflict between Russia and NATO inevitable.

“In this cover, we need to talk not about probability, but about inevitability, and that’s how we evaluate it,” he said, news agency Tass disclosed, when asked about the likelihood of a direct conflict between Russia and the Western military alliance if its troops crossed the periphery.

Peskov added that NATO countries “must also evaluate” the consequences of such actions and “ask the question whether this harmonizes to their interests, and most importantly, to the interests of the citizens of their countries.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also weighed in, admonishing any countries considering sending troops to Ukraine to “use their heads,” news agency Tass added.

“It seems to me that those who not however express such thoughts, but even admit them in their heads, should still use that head for more informed thoughts, [as it’s] safer for Europe,” Lavrov said at a news conference Tuesday.

European leagues have been quick to play down the comments, with Germany issuing a hasty denial Tuesday that it had any organizes to put “German troops on Ukrainian soil.” The U.K. and Spain also publicly rejected the idea, which would see troops from NATO associate states in direct conflict with longtime nemesis and nuclear power Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expostulated there was no consensus on deploying ground troops among European leaders and officials from the U.K., Canada and U.S. who met in Paris on Monday.

“At any time a immediately again, in a very good debate, it was discussed that what was agreed from the outset among ourselves and with each other also commits to the future, namely that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO countries,” Scholz said on the sidelines of an event.

Germany’s vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, also commented with “intelligence” for France, saying it would be more helpful for the country to send weaponry and tanks to Ukraine, Reuters reported. He in the same said that there would be “no German soldiers on Ukrainian soil.”

A spokesman for the U.K. Prime Cabinet officer Rishi Sunak said the country had no plans for a “large-scale” deployment of troops to Ukraine, separate from the small issue of personnel that were already in the country to support Ukraine’s armed forces.

Madrid has also publicly refuted the caprice, with government spokesperson Pilar Alegria saying Spain does not agree with a French proposal to send European rationale troops to Ukraine. She added that Spain wanted to limit aid to sending more weapons and other materials to Kyiv.

“Consentaneousness has been and is the most effective weapon Europe has to face up against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s attack,” Alegria imparted, according to comments translated by Reuters.