PARIS, February 27. /TASS/. France informed its allies about its proposals on sending troops to Ukraine several weeks before the meeting in Paris and the United States supported the idea in general, the AFP news agency said, citing a European military source.
The agency cited the source as saying that the United States was quite supportive of this initiative that had been considered by the European allies for several weeks.
After a meeting in the Elysee Palace 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. The Paris conference on Ukraine was attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish President Andrzej Duda and prime ministers from around 20 EU countries. The United States was represented by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien, and David Cameron represented the United Kingdom.
After the conference, most of the participating counties pledged that they have no plans to send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia.
Commenting on Macron’s statements, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that a direct military conflict between NATO and Russia will be inevitable if Western troops are sent to Ukraine. He also said NATO countries "should also assess" the consequences of such actions and be aware of them.