Says Europe should not show weakness and do everything it could to stop Russia from winning a war that threatened the security of ordinary French and European citizens
\n PARIS
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned allies against imposing limits on support for Ukraine, saying European security was at stake in Kyiv\u2019s battle against the Russian invasion.
\nWith Ukraine suffering military setbacks since the failure of a counteroffensive last summer, Macron had last month shocked some allies by not ruling out sending Western troops to Ukraine.
\nHe said in an interview with French television aimed at clarifying his policy that the sending of ground forces was not on the agenda now but Europe had to keep \u201call options\u201d open in case the war spread.
\nMacron\u2019s comments came as he prepares on Friday to travel to Berlin for a summit on Ukraine with allies German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
\nHe rammed home his insistence that Europe should not show weakness and do everything it could to stop Russia from winning a war that threatened the security of ordinary French and European citizens.
\n\u201cIf Russia wins this war, Europe\u2019s credibility will be reduced to zero,\u201d Macron said in the interview with French broadcasters TF1 and France 2 television.
\nCalling the conflict in Ukraine \u201cexistential for our Europe and for France,\u201d Macron said anybody advocating \u201climits\u201d on aid to Ukraine \u201cchooses defeat.\u201d
\nHe said there had been \u201ctoo many limits in our vocabulary\u201d since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
\n\u201cTwo years ago we said we would never send tanks. We did. Two years ago, we said we would never send medium-range missiles. We did,\u201d he said.
\nIn a post-interview statement, Macron said Russia would not halt its territorial ambitions if it wins its war in Ukraine, posing a threat to the neighboring countries of Moldova, Romania and Poland.
\n\u201cRussia has become a power that wants to expand and it\u2019s clear that it will not stop there,\u201d Macron posted on X. \u201cIf we abandon Ukraine, if we let Ukraine lose this war, Russia will surely threaten Moldova, Romania, Poland.\u201d
\nMacron acknowledged that negotiations would need to take place once the war ended but emphasized that peace did not mean the \u201ccapitulation\u201d of Ukraine.
\n\u201cToday we must have \u2014 to quote (Winston) Churchill \u2014 \u2018the sinews of peace\u2019. To want peace is not to want defeat or to let Ukraine fall,\u201d he said, quoting the famous phrase used by the British premier in a 1946 speech in the United States shortly after World War II ended.
\nFor France \u201call options\u201d are on the table in its support for Ukraine, Macron said. \u201cShould the situation get worse, we will be ready\u201d to prevent a Russian victory, but he also said his country would \u201cnever go on the offensive\u201d in the war. \u201cWe will never take the initiative,\u201d he said.
\nHe warned that \u201cif Russia wins, the life of the French will change. We will have no more security in Europe.\u201d
\nMacron, who said he has probably held more hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin than any other major leader in recent years, said the Kremlin chief could not be trusted.
\n\u201cWho would think for a single second that President Putin, who did not respect any of his limits and engagements, would stop there?\u201c
\nHe described Russia as an \u201cadversary\u201d of France but was careful to avoid using the word \u201cenemy.\u201d
\nMacron raised alarms throughout Europe last month when he said committing ground troops to Ukraine was not ruled out.
\nHis remark found little echo among allies, but also among the French population, with 68 percent disapproving of such an announcement, according to an opinion poll for the daily Le Figaro.
\nA majority in both houses of parliament backed Macron\u2019s Ukraine strategy this week, with the far-right RN party abstaining and the radical left voting against, with its deputies accusing Macron of \u201cwar-mongering.\u201d
\nAsked Thursday about sending ground troops to Ukraine, Macron replied: \u201cWe are not in that situation today\u201d while adding: \u201cThere is a reason not to exclude options.\u201d
\n\u201cIf Russia continues its escalation, if the situation deteriorates we must be ready to take the decisions that are needed to make sure Russia never wins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Says Europe should not show weakness and do everything it could to stop Russia from winning a war that threatened the security of ordinary French and European citizens PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned allies against imposing limits on support for Ukraine, saying European security was at stake in Kyiv\u2019s battle against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-394093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n