French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed his words that he does not rule out the possible dispatch of Western troops to Ukraine.

In an interview with The Economist, when asked if he holds to his words about the possible dispatch of ground troops to Ukraine, Macron said: “Absolutely.”

"I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out. We undoubtedly hesitated too much, defining the boundaries of our actions to someone who no longer has them and who is the aggressor! Our ability is to be reliable, to continue to help, to give Ukraine the means to resist. But our credibility also depends on the ability to restrain, without giving full clarity about what we will or will not do,” Macron explained.

Otherwise, according to the French President, “we will weaken ourselves, and this is the framework in which we have acted so far.” He also added that “many countries stated that in the following weeks they understood our approach and agreed with our position.”

“I have a clear strategic goal: Russia cannot win in Ukraine. If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What kind of security will other neighboring countries have – Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and others? And what kind of authority the Europeans have behind this, who would spend billions, say that the survival of the continent is at stake, and would not give the means to stop Russia?” said Macron.

He recalled that France had deployed several thousand troops in the Sahel to combat terrorism, which could pose a threat to the country.

“We did this at the request of sovereign states. If the Russians had broken through the front line, if a request had been received from Ukraine (which is not the case today), we would rightfully have to ask ourselves this question. Therefore, I think that to exclude this a priori means not to learn the lessons of the last two years,” the French President said.