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NATO troops deployment to Ukraine to lead to escalation — Italian PM

Giorgia Meloni stressed that Italy does not support the "hypothesis leading to an escalation, which should be avoided by all means"

ROME, March 19. /TASS/. Italy believes that sending NATO troops to Ukraine will only escalate the situation and this should not happen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said ahead of an EU summit.

"As for France’s initiative on a potential direct involvement [in Ukraine], our position is clear and I will repeat it here one again: we don’t support this hypothesis leading to an escalation, which should be avoided by all means," he said addressing national parliament.

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, he left the door open for such a scenario in the future. Later, he said that not ruling something out was not the same as doing something in reality.

Most of NATO countries have also said that they have no intention to send troops to Ukraine and that they are against taking part in combat operations against Russia. Nevertheless, despite the criticism, the French leader said later that his words had been well though over and reiterated that such an option was quite possible.

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Ukraine crisis Italy

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