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West’s intention to send troops to Ukraine expressed explicitly — Lavrov

According to the top Russian diplomat, following Emmanuel Macron’s statement, many French officials rushed to improve the impression his words has made on the European Union and the world community

ANTALYA, March 1. /TASS/. The West’s intention to deploy troops to Ukraine has been officially expressed by French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement, although their military has been there for a long time unofficially, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"The very fact that they want to deploy troops has been expressed explicitly, but unofficially hey are already there. Ukraine would not be able to use these so-called long-ranged weapons against Russian cities without these instructors. We all understand this perfectly well. There evidence is abundant and more surface," he said at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, commenting on the words by the French president who did not rule out that NATO troops could be sent to Ukraine.

According to Lavrov, following Macron’s statement, many French officials rushed to improve the impression his words has made on the European Union and the world community. "Many there (in the European Union - TASS), including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, began to categorically deny. But Macron’s officials, including the new foreign minister (Stephane Sejourne - TASS), hurried to say that he meant something different - that troops could be sent there not to fight but to teach and this may not lead to a war with Russia," he said, adding however that Macron is not backpedaling.

After a conference on Ukraine in the Paris on February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the participants had looked at sending ground troops to Ukraine. Although no consensus was reached on this topic, he left the door open for such a scenario in the future. After the conference, most of the participating counties pledged that they have no plans to send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia. French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on the following day that the presence of Western troops in Ukraine could be needed to offer certain types of assistance, for instance, in mine clearance operations and training of Ukrainian soldiers, but such presence would not envisage their participation in the conflict.

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