BRUSSELS, March 21. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron believes that Ukraine’s fall is imminent, says the European edition of Politico, referring to its sources.

According to the paper, on Wednesday Macron held a political event at the Elysee Palace, where, among other things, the upcoming elections to the European Parliament were discussed.

"Ukraine could fall very quickly," Macron said during the event, as relayed to the newspaper by a participant at the gathering.

Earlier, at a press conference with Czech President Petr Pavel, Macron said that European countries should not place limits on themselves when talking about helping Ukraine to prevent the spread of defeatist sentiment. Against this background, Macron emphasized the importance of securing military aid for Ukraine and expressed support for the Czech initiative to purchase artillery shells from third countries outside the EU.

On February 26, speaking after a conference on Ukraine in Paris, Macron did not unequivocally rule out potential sending Western land troops to the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine. He also vowed that Western states would "do what is needed" to prevent Russia’s victory in this conflict.

In a March 17 interview with Le Parisien newspaper, Macron said that ground operations could be necessary at a certain point "to confront Russian forces" in Ukraine.