VIENNA, February 29. /TASS/. The idea voiced by France to send NATO troops to Ukraine has caused serious concern among European leaders, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the OSCE, Maksim Buyakevich, said at a meeting of the organization's permanent council.
The diplomat noted the growing involvement of NATO countries in the armed confrontation in and around Ukraine. "Irresponsible statements continue to be heard from some capitals about plans for sending regular military units to take part in hostilities against the Russian military."
"We see many European leaders’ serious concern in connection with the ideas voiced in France on February 26 of sending NATO member-states’ military personnel to help Ukrainian neo-Nazi formations," Buyakevich said.
He described such ideas as a "conscious step towards increasing military escalation both in the Ukrainian conflict and on the European continent as a whole."
French President Emmanuel Macron said on February 26 that at a meeting in Paris, where representatives of about 20 Western countries discussed further support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, the possibility of sending Western countries’ ground troops to Ukraine was raised. He remarked that no consensus was achieved, but such a scenario could not be ruled out in the future. After the conference, representatives of most of the participating countries said that they had no intention to send troops to Ukraine and were strongly opposed to their participation in military operations against Russia. On February 27, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne explained that the presence of Western military in Ukraine might be necessary to provide some types of assistance, including demining operations and instruction of Ukrainian soldiers, but that did not imply their participation in the conflict.
Commenting on Macron's remarks, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that if Western troops were sent to Ukraine, a direct military conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable. He added that NATO countries should be aware of this and ask themselves whether this met their interests and, most importantly, the interests of their citizens.