Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a press conference today [March 6th] that the deployment of European troops in Ukraine would put an end to a ‘proxy war’, and instead signify that ‘NATO is fighting Russia’.
The Russian Foreign Minister also hinted at retaliation should European troops be sent to Ukraine: “If this is a threat, then troops should be sent against this threat.”
His comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a televised address that France is open to deploying troops to Ukrainian soil in order to enforce a peace agreement.
During his address to the French people, in which he also proposed to bring Europe under the French nuclear umbrella, Macron insisted that troops would have only a defensive role in Ukraine: “They won’t go to fight on the front line, but they would be there once a peace deal is signed, to guarantee it is fully respected”.
He warned against European dependence on American protection: “I want to believe that the US will stand by our side, but we have to be ready for that not to be the case”.
According to the Guardian, British PM Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron will present a peace plan to President Trump in the next few days. The pair have been in regular communication in recent days, and have spoken regularly to both President Zelenskyy and Donald Trump.
An announcement by US officials on Tuesday morning [March 4th] that they had paused intelligence to Ukraine on Tuesday morning, has lent an increased sense of urgency to the Anglo-French diplomatic offensive that his been ongoing since last Friday’s oval office bust-up.
