'Dangerous' to send NATO troops to Ukraine - UK

RT
Sun, 05 May 2024 02:03 UTC

© Janek Skarzynski/AFP

Military exercises involving Poland, Britain, the US and Romania • Bemowo Piskie, Poland • November 18, 2021

The UK foreign secretary has spoken out against sending soldiers from NATO countries to Ukraine to fight against the Russian army. He made the comments amid calls from some EU leaders for more direct involvement in the conflict.

Speaking to Sky News on Friday, David Cameron said the UK would keep supplying weapons to Kiev and focus on replenishing its own stocks "as a national priority."

"But I wouldn't have NATO soldiers in the country because I think that could be a dangerous escalation. We've trained - I think - almost 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers."

This week, French President Emmanuel Macron once again refused to rule out a potential deployment in Ukraine. "We mustn't rule anything out because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine," he told the Economist. Macron argued that the question of NATO boots on the ground could arise "if the Russians were to break through the front lines" and if Kiev were to request help.

Other high-ranking European officials have floated the idea of troop deployments, with some suggesting that the US-led military alliance could send demining squads and other non-combat personnel. "The presence of NATO forces in Ukraine is not unthinkable," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters in March.

However, other NATO countries, notably Hungary and Slovakia, have spoken out against any further escalation.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told French broadcaster LCI on Thursday:
"If a NATO member commits ground troops, it will be a direct NATO-Russia confrontation and it will then be World War III."

Moscow has repeatedly warned that it would be forced to attack Western troops if they take part in the conflict. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram on Friday that "nothing will remain" of NATO forces if they are sent to the front line in Ukraine.

Kiev has sounded the alarm over the delays in Western military aid in recent months, blaming ammunition shortages for losses on the battlefield.

In an interview published in The Economist on Thursday, Vadim Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, said Ukraine's defenses could crumble even with the recently approved additional aid packages from the US and UK.

Comment: Some believe Macron's idea for Ukraine could trigger WWIII:

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has condemned the latest remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron about the option of sending troops to Ukraine, and has warned such a move could ultimately spark an all-out nuclear war. The diplomat strongly condemned the idea, saying that the French leader's comments themselves have contributed to escalating the situation.

Macron doubled down on previous statements about the prospect of deploying French troops to Ukraine. The president said his original remarks, made earlier this year, were a "strategic wake-up call for my counterparts." He suggested that Paris could deploy troops "if the Russians were to break through the front lines" and a request for help came from Kiev.

Hungary's top diplomat also criticized Macron's idea that France's nuclear weapons could become a part of a credible European defense.

"In peacetime it would be different, but in wartime such statements can be misinterpreted and have serious consequences. It will be over for everyone."

Speaking to Hungarian broadcaster M1 earlier in the day, the minister also rejected NATO's proposed €100 billion ($107 billion) five-year plan for a war chest to prop up Ukraine, floated by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, describing it as "madness."

"In the coming weeks during negotiations we will fight for Hungary's right to stay away from this madness, from collecting these 100 billion and siphoning them out of Europe."

Hungary has been consistently opposed to the growing involvement of both the US-led NATO and the EU in the Ukrainian conflict, refusing to support Kiev militarily, including through sending weaponry or training Ukrainian troops.