ROME, March 10. /TASS/. The deployment of Western troops to Ukraine will trigger escalation of the conflict and diplomatic settlement will be impossible, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said.

"The deployment of [NATO] troops to Kiev would be a step toward escalation, which will close the to diplomacy," he said in an interview with the La Stampa newspaper.

He noted that since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, NATO has been distancing itself from it and France and Poland, which are not ruling out sending Western forces, should speak for themselves rather than on behalf of the entire alliance.

At the same time, the Italian minister said it would be right to supply Kiev with weapons, although, in his words, the West can help Ukraine in another way - through more active diplomatic efforts.

After a conference on Ukraine in Paris on February 26, Macron said that the participants had considered sending ground troops to Ukraine. Although no consensus was reached on this topic, he left the door open to such a scenario in the future. After the conference, most of the participating counties stated that they have no plans to send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia.

French French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu said on Friday that sending troops to fight in Ukraine is out of the question. He said the presence of Western troops in Ukraine could be needed to render certain types of assistance, for instance, in mine clearance operations and training Ukrainian soldiers.