Brussels The war in Ukraine has caused the European Union to break one taboo after another, especially in defense matters. The Twenty-seven had never sent as much weaponry to any ally as they have supplied to Ukraine during these last two years, nor had they set out to promote – in the literal words of Brussels – a “war economy” to continue giving long-term support for Kyiv and rearming against Vladimir Putin’s imperialism. In fact, with these initiatives they have left behind one of the existential features of the European bloc, which renounced militarization and chose to guarantee peace only through political and commercial ties.
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However, the European Union is debating whether to go a step further in its involvement in the war and break one of the bloc’s other big taboos: sending soldiers to Ukraine and thereby bolstering the fighting Ukrainian troops against the Russian invasion. So far, both NATO leaders and the Europeans have always chosen to reject this option head-on and avoid a possible war escalation, but the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the last attempt to erect himself a great international leader, opened the door to send soldiers of the Atlantic Alliance to Ukrainian territory. “Today there is no consensus, but nothing can be ruled out,” he told a meeting of Western leaders in Paris at the end of February.
These statements fell like a bucket of cold water to different leaders of the Western allies and especially one of the most historically pacifist of the Old Continent since the Second World War, Germany. A few hours later, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, cried out to the heavens and came out to rule out this possibility, along with NATO and various leaders of the European bloc. However, after the silence of the first days. Then, little by little, more voices have come out that do not see the French proposal with such bad eyes.
For example, although Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk initially responded that his country had no “plans” to send troops to Ukraine, earlier this month its foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, he pointed out that Macron’s idea “is not impossible” and thanked him for not closing the door to this possibility. In addition, Macron’s words in recent days have helped to confirm that there are already military personnel from NATO states who are on Ukrainian territory, although not on the front or on the ground battlefield.
In fact, the same Polish Foreign Minister also confirmed at the beginning of March that “there are already NATO soldiers in Ukraine” and different international media have echoed these last few days the confidential documents of the Pentagon, leaked in ‘April 2023, in which it is indicated that the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Lithuania and the Netherlands had in their embassies in Ukraine about a hundred military special forces.
On the other hand, the head of Russian intelligence, Sergey Naryshkin, has assured that France is preparing a contingent of 2,000 soldiers to send to Ukraine, which the Elysee has already denied. “It’s another case of disinformation from Russia,” says a tweet from the French Defense Ministry’s X (formerly Twitter) social network account.
Raise the warmongering tone
No leader of the Atlantic Alliance has sided with Macron with his controversial words; some words, however, that no longer arouse the frontal opposition that they provoked at the beginning. And, in any case, the European leaders have raised, and very much, the bellicose tone, especially a few days before the European Council that will take place this Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
Shortly after the French president opened the box of thrones, the president of the European Commission and candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP), Ursula von der Leyen, already made, with an eye on the European elections, a major announcement of weapons purchases similar to vaccines or gas. And, in recent days, several government leaders insist that Ukraine is in one of the most delicate moments since the start of the invasion and are calling for a step forward in the EU’s commitment to fighting Ukrainian troops.
In this sense, in the meeting of the twenty-seven heads of state and government of the EU this week, it is expected that the expansion of arms support to Kyiv will be discussed. How? There is still no talk, at least officially, of the possibility of sending troops from Western allies to Ukraine, but a majority of member states are putting pressure on the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is the major financing arm of the EU, so that it can change its regulations and inject billions into the European arms industry or, among others, they want to find a way to redirect to Ukraine the profits obtained from the funds that the EU has frozen in Russia.
2024-03-19 19:52:15
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