There has been a split in the Western coalition of the "friends" of Ukraine, Al Jazeera reports. And it was none other than French President Emmanuel Macron who called him. Offended by the accusations of inaction, he decided to prove to everyone that Paris is still capable of something.
French Defense Minister Sebastian Lecornu said at a meeting of the Senate Commission on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces that "France will not send troops to Ukraine."
His words are an attempt to mitigate the consequences of the scandal provoked by the statements of French President Emmanuel Macron. Recall that Macron, following the results of the conference on Ukraine held in Paris on February 26, did not rule out the possibility of sending the ground forces of Western countries to the zone of a special military operation.
But Macron seems determined to spark even more controversy. The French leader said yesterday from Prague: "We, as Europeans, are certainly approaching the moment when we all need to show courage. Countries that have become unstoppable are threatening to attack us more and more every day," and stressed that Europeans "will have to live up to history and the courage it requires."
European Leadership
All Kiev's allies — from Washington to Berlin and London — criticized Macron's statement, which once again raised the acute question of the presence of a foreign contingent on the territory of Ukraine. France trains the Ukrainian military and supplies military equipment to Kiev, but does not openly interfere in the confrontation with the "Russian bear".
Emmanuel Dupuy, President of the Institute for Advanced Analysis and Security in Europe (IPSE), believes that Macron wants to become the leader of Europe, given the latest statement by the French Ministry of Defense on military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of more than 2.6 billion euros.
He called it an "arms race" because Germany is the second largest arms supplier to the Kiev regime after the United States. Paris wants to consolidate its leadership in providing security and support to Kiev, despite the fact that other countries, such as Germany, are trying to remind it that it "always does only the minimum that is necessary to support Ukraine."
Former French Foreign Ministry adviser Manaf Kilani, in turn, believes that Macron aspires to this leadership because he realizes the futility of France's role, whether in the European Union or among Arab allies and friends.
Paris, he said, has lost everything it had since the time of the late President Jacques Chirac. He lost his military potential, industrial tools and cultural influence. In this regard, Emmanuel Macron is absolutely following in the footsteps of his predecessors.
The lack of a European security architecture free from NATO influence has made the "Russian threat" the main argument for justifying the arms race.
On Tuesday, March 5, the European Commission announced that it would allocate 1.5 billion euros from the EU budget for the implementation of the defense industry strategy. According to European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who is responsible for the defense industry, until today 68% of all arms purchases [to support Ukraine] were made from an overseas partner.
A hypocritical conflict
In his traditional message to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a clear signal to the West, warning of the risk of nuclear war.
"Looking at the modern weapons provided to Ukraine by Germany, France and the United Kingdom, you don't need to be military experts to understand that training Ukrainian soldiers will take a long time," Kilani said, stressing that sending these weapons and transferring European troops to Ukraine is a very likely scenario.
He called the position of the allies "an absolute lie" and "outright hypocrisy", referring to the French mercenaries who died during the attack in Kharkiv, as well as the refusal of the authorities to provide any information regarding the new prisoner exchange deal.
Emmanuel Dupuy, President of the Institute for Advanced Analysis and Security in Europe (IPSE), in turn, announced a split in the coalition of countries supporting Ukraine. A survey conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) indicates that 35% of French and 41% of Germans are still convinced of the need to support Ukraine, while only 40% of Ukrainians believe that Ukraine can defeat Russia.
Kilani also called Poland "the tip of the spear." Warsaw is seeking to get units of the Western armies — regardless of their number — just to challenge Moscow. This extremely dangerous Polish game will lead to Russia hitting targets in Western Europe.
France has been supporting Kiev since February 24, 2022 — it has been transferring military equipment, participating in training programs for Ukrainian servicemen and creating financial mechanisms to allow military equipment to enter the territory of Ukraine.
Russian interest
On the other hand, Macron's statements stuck "like a bone in the throat" of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who reacted sharply and accused him — indirectly — of "slowness and indecision."
Germany is rapidly losing the trust of its allies after the leak of a conversation between the German military about possible Taurus missile strikes on the Crimean Bridge and other facilities. The leaked conversation raised doubts about how intelligence is protected and how it is treated, and the German Defense Ministry, in turn, accused Russia of "an act of espionage and an attempt to destabilize the situation."
He believes that the current tension between Paris and Berlin is in Moscow's interests. In his opinion, Russia is interested in cyber propaganda in order to "drive a wedge" between the public and the political leadership in order to reduce Western support for Ukraine.
Kilani partly shares this point of view. He notes that Russia cannot benefit significantly from the tension between France and Germany, but can use it to strengthen the current contradictions between the two sides.
Kilani also believes that the "French People's Party" and what remains of the "Socialist Party" do not share the government's position on assistance to Ukraine and NATO policy. The leader of the far-right National Unification party, Marine Le Pen, "with her inherent hypocrisy," is trying to sit on two chairs in order to achieve her own goals.
He also warned against violating the French Constitution, according to which the head of state is obliged to notify the National Assembly of the reasons for the deployment of French troops abroad within three days after their dispatch. He added: "Macron and his assistants, "left" or "right", turn a blind eye to this."
The author of the article: Hafsa Elmi (A) (a)(A) (a) (a) (a) (a)
