NATO's political and military chiefs have parted ways with French President Emmanuel Macron, dismissing his suggestion that alliance forces should intervene in the conflict in Ukraine.
As Ukraine approaches the second anniversary of its battle against Russian invading forces, Mr. Macron raised the prospect of deploying NATO military there on Monday. According to Mr. Macron, the possibility of deploying NATO forces into Ukraine was "discussed openly" at a recent NATO summit.
“There’s no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner, troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing can be ruled out,” Mr. Macron said at a news conference at the Élysée Palace on Monday evening.
By Tuesday morning, leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and Italy indicated they would not be volunteering their countries’ troops for such a deployment.
“There will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO states,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters on Tuesday.
In a similar vein, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius declared that Germany "does not have the option" of sending troops to Ukraine. Robert Habeck, the German Minister of Economics, expressed his encouragement over President Macron's show of support for Ukraine, but suggested that Mr. Macron use his energies into arming and munishing Ukrainian soldiers.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced his country “does not plan to send its troops to Ukraine.”
“Since Russia’s aggression two years ago, there has been full unity among all Allies regarding the support to be offered to Kyiv,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said Tuesday. “This support does not provide for the presence of troops from European or NATO Countries on Ukrainian territory.”
Additionally, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg retreated from suggestions that the alliance get involved in the conflict in Ukraine directly.
“NATO allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We have done that since 2014 and stepped up after the full-scale invasion,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “But there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
On Tuesday, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters that a limited number of U.K. military personnel are already in Ukraine in a supporting role but said, “We haven’t got any plans for large-scale deployment.”
One of the few heads of a NATO member state to propose that at least some of the countries may become more actively involved in the conflict in Ukraine was Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia. Although other nations were considering doing bilateral arrangements with Ukraine to send soldiers their way, Mr. Fico stated that his country had no such intentions for a deployment to that country.
Additionally, the Russian government did not waste time in issuing warnings to NATO forces to stay out of the continuing conflict in Ukraine.
The NATO nations' provision of ammunition, financing, and intelligence sharing to Ukraine for use against Russian soldiers has infuriated the Russian leadership throughout the course of the previous two years of combat. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has not seen a need for direct confrontation with the 31-member alliance despite NATO's backing of his adversary; however, this may alter if NATO forces engaged in direct combat with Russian forces.
“It’s not going to be about probability, but inevitability – that’s how we assess it,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the probability of a direct armed conflict between Russia and NATO if NATO troops deployed to fight in Ukraine.
Speaking with the Russian state-owned TASS news agency, Mr. Peskov said any NATO members considering sending troops to Ukraine should ask themselves whether such a move “corresponds to their interests, and most importantly, to the interests of the citizens of their countries.”
A direct assault on a NATO member country would be viewed as an attack on the alliance as a whole, and member nations would respond in collective self-defense, according to Article 5 of the group's founding 1949 North Atlantic Treaty. As would be the case if NATO forces intervened in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the NATO treaty is less explicit regarding member states entering an ongoing conflict involving non-members.
The suggestion by Mr. Macron to actively engage NATO soldiers in the conflict in Ukraine coincides with reports that the Ukrainian military is running out on ammunition and that the nation is thinking of expanding its draft rules to ensure that there are enough men to maintain an army.
Congress has been debating the future of military aid for Ukraine for months, as the United States has nearly finished its current rounds of financing for that country.
This month, earlier, the U.S. A $95 billion supplemental budget plan with around $60 billion in fresh funding for Ukraine was approved by the Senate. The House of Representatives has not yet had a chance to vote on the bill. Numerous Republican members have voiced disapproval about the spending supplemental's high cost and absence of border security measures. Republicans who have been pushing for a settlement have also become less certain about prolonging the conflict in Ukraine.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) are the top four members of Congress that President Biden is expected to meet with on Tuesday. He will likely restate his demands for the House to approve the $95 billion spending supplemental.
“If that national security supplemental were to go on the floor of the House, it would get bipartisan support. We know this. We’ve heard from Republicans who have said this. And we’re going to continue to push forward. And that is part of what the President is going to discuss with the Big Four tomorrow,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday.
