Emmanuel Macron speaks again on Ukraine and Putin

Questioned by Le Parisien upon his return from Berlin where he had spoken with his German and Polish counterparts, Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, arguing that France is "preparing for all scenarios".

Will Emmanuel Macron send ground troops to Ukraine? If the announcement made some of his allies cringe by affirming at the end of February that he did not rule out this possibility, Emmanuel Macron once again defended his position during an interview with Le Parisien on Friday March 15. “Perhaps at some point – I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative – we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” he said. he declared during his return trip from Berlin where he met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “The strength of France is that we can do it,” he said.

While Vladimir Putin is heading, unsurprisingly, towards a new coronation, assured of remaining at the head of the Kremlin for the next six years, Emmanuel Macron told our colleagues that Russia is not "a great power". “Russia is a middle power with nuclear weapons, but whose GDP is much lower than that of Europeans,” he said. Despite a displayed unity regarding the aid granted to Ukraine in the war it is waging against Russia, Germany is, for the moment, still not on the same strategic line put forward by Emmanuel Macron. To explain these differences, the French President believes that Germany is adopting a "strategy of great caution" and is "keeping its distance from nuclear power". If he said he was ready to get back around the table with Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron assured Le Parisien that we should not “let ourselves be intimidated” by his “discourse of fear”. Affirming to prepare for all “scenarios”, the Head of State stressed that everyone who can, and according to his model, “would take their responsibilities” when the time comes.