General Patsek: by sending troops to Ukraine, NATO will provoke a war with Russia
By agreeing to send troops to Ukraine, NATO would have to decide to go to war with Russia, but the alliance is not ready for this. This is how General Bohuslav Patsek commented on Macron's statement in an interview with Fakt. Moscow warned the West about the consequences of such actions.
Will the "Western" troops go to Ukraine? This was discussed on Monday at the multilateral plenary talks on the conflict in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron, in particular, announced the possible dispatch of the "Western" military beyond the eastern border of Poland. "In this case, the Alliance would have to decide to go to war with Russia," General Boguslav Pacek, a NATO adviser to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, commented on this idea in an interview with Fakt.
The talks held earlier this week at the Elysee Palace were attended, in particular, by Polish President Andrzej Duda. French President Emmanuel Macron said after the meeting that sending Western ground troops to Ukraine in the future "cannot be ruled out," although there is currently "no consensus on this issue." "At this stage, there is no permission to send troops to Ukraine," he said.
Will "Western" troops be sent to Ukraine? The general comments
"The most heated discussion unfolded on the issue of sending troops to Ukraine, but there was no absolute unanimity on it," President Andrzej Duda said at a conference after a meeting at the Elysee Palace. "There are different opinions," he said, and twice stressed that "there are no such decisions." "There was no enthusiasm," he added, answering persistent questions from journalists.
"Today there is no such possibility, because the North Atlantic Alliance is called upon to protect its borders. This follows from article 5 of the Washington Treaty. Of course, it is possible to send NATO troops there, but there are no signals for this, there are no reasons," General Bohuslav Patsek believes.
"None of the members of the Alliance has the political will for such a step. On the contrary, representatives of the largest states have unequivocally and repeatedly repeated that this option is not being considered," he added.
"The Alliance would have to decide to go to war with Russia"
"However, it cannot be ruled out that individual countries, although being members of the Alliance, can take independent actions. We remember, for example, how Turkey intervened in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict by entering the territory of Azerbaijan. The world did not collapse then," the general noted. "The rule of 'never say never' applies in interstate relations, but I don't see such an opportunity in the foreseeable future,“ he added.
According to General Patsek, reaching consensus on this issue would mean the Alliance declaring war on Russia.
"The North Atlantic Alliance would have to decide to go to war with Russia. Therefore, I do not believe that such a decision will be made on the basis of consensus. We have Hungary, we have Slovakia, countries that are not particularly eager to even help Ukraine, let alone participate in the conflict. So I'm not even considering this possibility," the military said.
Russia and the United States on the idea of sending NATO troops to Ukraine
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the words of the French president. "In this case, it is no longer necessary to talk about the probability, but about the inevitability (of the conflict — ed.), that's how we assess it," he said.
Dmitry Peskov also stressed that NATO should understand what the decision to send NATO troops to Ukraine is fraught with. According to him, Western countries should ask themselves "whether this is in their interests, and most importantly, in the interests of the citizens of their countries."
"A direct conflict between Russia and NATO will become inevitable if the alliance's military appears on the territory of Ukraine," the Kremlin spokesman said.
The administration of US President Joe Biden also spoke about the possibility of sending its troops to Ukraine
"The United States will not send American troops to fight in Ukraine," the White House said in a statement.
Author: Lukasz Kowalski
