TOKYO, March 5. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron's statement about the possibility of Western countries sending troops to Ukraine is aimed at intimidating Russia, but in reality the involvement of NATO members bilaterally or multilaterally in the Ukrainian conflict will inevitably increase, one of Japan's leading experts on military issues, Daisuke Kawai, has told TASS.

"Macron's statement was a manifestation of his personal disappointment that NATO as a military alliance does not function properly. One can also recall the French president's earlier remark about the ‘brain death’ of the North Atlantic Alliance. At the same time, Macron's latest statement is designed to intimidate Russia by pointing to the possibility of an escalation to full-scale war and of sending NATO and EU troops, if Moscow expands military operations in Ukraine," said Kawai, the Deputy Director of the Economic Security Program at the Center for Advanced Emerging Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo.

"Nevertheless," Kawai went on to say, "there is no doubt that the involvement of individual members of the alliance in the conflict will increase, not even NATO as a structure. This is well seen, for example, in the decision of EU members to buy ammunition for Ukraine from non-EU countries. This is a serious change in the previous policy."

The expert recalled that already 15 EU countries had expressed their willingness to participate in raising $1.5 billion for that purpose.

"At the same time, NATO members are trying to steer clear of a situation where Russia might confront the alliance itself as an organization," Kawai noted. "For this purpose, the EU framework, which largely duplicates NATO, bilateral and separate multilateral arrangements are being used. However, in the end, the real involvement of NATO countries in the conflict is growing and will grow in the future."

NATO assurances, explanations from Paris

Macron said on February 26 that at a meeting in Paris with representatives of about 20 Western countries he raised the possibly of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine. He said the participants did not reach a consensus on this issue, 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 were not planning to send troops to Ukraine and even more opposed their participation in military operations against Russia.

On February 27, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said that the presence of Western troops in Ukraine might be required to provide some types of assistance, including demining and training of Ukrainian army units.