French President Emmanuel Macron has publicly claimed Russia will attack ten more countries unless stopped in Ukraine. He said this at a conference where the Prime Minister of Slovakia revealed there is "Zero talk of peace" at the NATO Conference.
Here is video of Macron making the claim himself:
Emmanuel Macron announced that Russia will attack at least 10 more countries. pic.twitter.com/YJNBIj5B9N
— S p r i n t e r (@Sprinter99800) February 26, 2024
Macron went on to say that several NATO countries have chosen to INDIVIDUALLY sign "Security Agreements" with Ukraine, and then he dropped a rhetorical bombshell by announcing some NATO countries may choose send their own troops into Ukraine to join the fight.
The implications of such a move are staggering, and the reactions from Russia are just as staggering.
The possible decision to send ground troops to Ukraine by NATO countries could be interpreted as the alliance’s direct participation in hostilities and even as a declaration of war, Konstantin Kosachev, the deputy speaker of the Federation Council, said following the statement by French President Emmanuel Macron, who stated after a meeting of European leaders in Paris that such a scenario had been discussed, but the participants failed to reach a consensus.
"This is a point where not just NATO's participation in the war begins (it started a long time ago), but can be interpreted as the alliance’s direct involvement in hostilities, or even as a declaration of war," Kosachev said on his Telegram channel.
He described the French leader's logic as dangerous: those who deny the possibility of sending Western ground troops to the conflict zone today once denied the possibility of supplying tanks, airplanes and long-range missiles.
"This logic is not just faulty, but dangerous and fraught with a catastrophic scenario. Which, as we can see ever more often, some Western leaders absolutely do not understand. The tactic of "slowly boiling a frog" by no means "persuades" Russia that it can accept anything, provided it is done gradually," Kosachev said.
He pointed out that competent Western experts knew perfectly well in the past that there was a limit to patience or a so-called red line.
"This is exactly what happened with the expansion of NATO and the beginning of the special military operation, which became simply inevitable at a certain stage. At some point NATO thought that since the Baltic countries were in NATO, Moscow would agree to Ukraine’s role of "Anti-Russia" quite calmly. Russia refused to reconcile itself with the gradual increase of threats to its security and did its utmost to express its position to the Western countries and offer real agreements on the security architecture in the Euro-Atlantic. They turned a deaf ear to this and preferred to ‘boil the frog.’ The same will happen should NATO intervention occur in Ukraine," Kosachev said.
Macron told a news conference following a meeting of the European leaders that there was no consensus on officially sending ground troops to Ukraine today, but he did not rule out such a possibility in the future. He added that Western countries "intend to do whatever is necessary to prevent Russia" from gaining the upper hand in the conflict.
KREMLIN: "Would Make Direct War Inevitable"
The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that conflict between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would be inevitable if European members of NATO sent troops to fight in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and President Vladimir Putin has previously warned of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.
"The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Macron's remarks.
Asked by reporters about the risks if NATO members sent their troops to fight in Ukraine, Peskov said:
"In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict)."
Peskov said that the West should ask themselves if such a scenario was in the interests of their countries and their peoples.
Even talk of a confrontation between Russia and NATO - a Cold War nightmare of leaders and populations alike - indicates the dangers of escalation as the West grapples with a resurgent Russia 32 years after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
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