France officially refuses to send troops to Ukraine

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said that the French "will not die for Ukraine.” Paris has thus refused to send its troops to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to Sejourne, France will act within the established framework to prevent Russia from winning without going to war with Moscow.

At the same time, Sejourne said that nothing could be excluded within this framework as President Macron said earlier. The French president also admitted that EU states could indeed send their soldiers to help the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Interestingly, on February 27, Sejourne said that French troops could be deployed in Ukraine for certain needs, without direct participation in the conflict with Russia.

France not ready for escalation in Ukraine

Russian Ambassador to France Alexei Meshkov said that the French were not ready to escalate the conflict and send troops to Ukraine.

According to Meshkov, the people of France are strongly opposed to sending French military personnel to Ukraine.

Emmanuel Macron's statements harmed Kyiv, Politico wrote citing French politicians. According to them, Macron wanted to consolidate Western efforts to support Ukraine and thus send a strong strategic message to Russia.

"But if the French leader's remarks were meant to send a firm warning to the Kremlin, they failed spectacularly — in fact, they achieved the complete opposite. To the Kremlin's chortling delight, Macron's comments exposed Western splits and rifts, communicating panic over the military state of play in Ukraine. And Russian officials rushed forward to ridicule Macron," Politico said.