Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron (Picture: EU2023ES on Flickr)
France’s president Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine on Monday. “Nothing should be excluded,” he insisted after a European Union conference centred on the war with Russia.
France is not set to launch an open war with Russia. But Macron’s statement shows the dangerous escalation considered by Western powers two years after the Russian invasion. Before the summit, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico cited a “restricted document” listing topics to be discussed.
“These topics,” he said, “imply that a number of Nato and EU member states are considering sending troops to Ukraine.” The war is now a stalemate. Ukraine, whose frontline troops now have an average age of 43, is desperate for more forces to shovel into the bloodbath.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim last week that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died so far is a gross underestimate.
United States officials nine months ago put the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed at 70,000 and as many as 120,000 injured.
Zelensky and sections of the Ukrainian military have clashed over whether to call up another half million conscripts. But they all agreed they need more troops, shells, missiles, planes—and money.
And the Western countries, despite their own divisions, are devising new ways to provide most of what Ukraine wants. Nato is an alliance for continual wars for Western imperialist expansion. We need to oppose British, Nato and Russian imperialism even more.
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