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The leaders of Germany, France, and Poland have met in Berlin to discuss strategies for aiding Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk discussed the urgent need for military support for Ukraine. However, tensions between Macron and Scholz have posed challenges to unified action.
At a previous European leaders’ meeting, Macron’s suggestion that a NATO troop deployment in Ukraine could be considered and his critique of allies as potentially acting like “cowards” sparked controversy. Scholz, in contrast, repeated the consensus of NATO allies against deploying ground troops to Ukraine, emphasizing a firm stance against German military involvement in the war or any operational planning from German soil.
In preparation for the Berlin summit, Macron, in an interview with TF1, said the current scenario does not justify troop deployment but could in the future. He stressed that France would not initiate a war with Russia but would keep all options on the table to “prevent” the war from escalating.
Russia responds:
The Kremlin has accused France of deepening its involvement in the war. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, previously warned that any NATO troop deployment would result in a “direct conflict” with Western countries.
