Several NATO and European Union member satates are considering sending soldiers to Ukraine, according to Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.
While adding that he did not know what the troops would be doing in the war-torn country, he said that a move like that would likely lead to escalation.
He was speaking ahead of a hastily-arranged meeting of European leaders in Paris on Monday over what his advisers claim is an escalation in Russian aggression over the past few weeks.
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Fico said the meeting implies that “a number of Nato and EU member states are considering that they will send their troops to Ukraine on a bilateral basis”
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that sending Western ground troops to Ukraine could not be “ruled out”
NYP reports: Fico, who has previously opposed sending military supplies to Ukraine, claimed that global leaders are discussing whether to send reinforcements to Eastern Europe during a Paris conference over the war on Monday.
“I will limit myself to say that these theses (in preparation for the Paris meeting) imply a number of NATO and EU member states are considering that they will send their troops to Ukraine on a bilateral basis,” Fico said in a televised briefing.
“I cannot say for what purpose and what they should be doing there,” he added, noting that he would not allow any soldier from Slovakia to be sent to Ukraine.
Most of the 20 NATO and the European Union nations attending the Paris conference at the Elysee Palace have not responded to Fico’s claims.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, however, has come forward to say that “the Czech Republic certainly is not preparing to send any soldiers to Ukraine”
While NATO members, including the US, have supplied Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons and ammunition, they have reiterated that the West wants to avoid direct conflict with Russia as it could lead to global war.
“Neither NATO nor NATO allies are party to the conflict,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized in a statement on Feb. 14.
During Monday’s Paris conference, French President Emmanuel Macron echoed the need to avoid direct conflict but called on European leaders to continue to support Ukraine as the war with Russia is expected to intensify in the coming months.
“We are in the process of ensuring our collective security, for today and tomorrow,” Macron said at the conference, held just days after the war in Ukraine entered its third year. “Russia cannot and must not win that war.”
An adviser for Macron told reporters at the meeting that a goal of the conference was to send a message to Putin that he “won’t win in Ukraine,” and show support for the ally nation after suffering a loss in Avdiivka.
