LONDON, March 20. /TASS/. The government of the United Kingdom has no intention of sending its troops to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the British premier’s office told TASS.
"There are no plans to put troops alongside armed forces of Ukraine," the spokesperson said, adding that "full military deployment" was ruled out immediately after French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson welcomed the French leader’s ongoing efforts to provide military aid to the Kiev government.
On February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that during a meeting in Paris where representatives of around 20 Western states discussed further support for Kiev in the conflict with Moscow, the possibility of sending ground troops to Ukraine was raised. According to the French leader, participants did not reach a consensus on this issue, but such a scenario cannot be ruled out in the future. He later clarified his statement, explaining that "not ruling something out does not mean doing it." After the conference, representatives of most participating countries stated that they do not plan to send troops to Ukraine and are against their involvement in combat actions against Russia.
On March 19, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said that France was already preparing a military contingent to be sent to Ukraine, which would initially amount to about 2,000 soldiers. After that, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces made a statement on the social network X that what Naryshkin said did not correspond to reality.