By Yiğit Saner
France is pursuing to form an alliance comprised of Western countries open to send troops to Ukraine. Poland supports the group led by Macron; they are trying to involve Germany. Additionally, the recent “Russian propaganda” wind in the US media is raising some questions.
Paris is planning to send troops to Kyiv by forming an alliance with countries eager to make war against Moscow. This evaluation was voiced in the US press. And we look at developments in recent days regarding the matter.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, during a meeting with Baltic countries and Ukrainian counterparts in Lithuania, expressed support for the idea that foreign troops could assist Ukraine in areas such as mine clearance.
In the meeting chaired by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, Séjourné stated, “It is not for Russia to tell us how we should help Ukraine in the coming months or years. It is not for Russia to organize how we deploy our actions, or to set red lines. So we decide it among us.”
The French Foreign Minister repeatedly mentioned mine clearance operations as a “possibility” and asserted that the potential alliance “might mean having some personnel, but not to fight”. “Ukraine did not ask us to send troops. Ukraine is asking us to send ammunition at the moment” said Séjourné, yet did not rule out sending troops in the coming months by “We do not exclude anything for the coming months”.
In parallel with Paris, the Baltic countries’ foreign ministers praised Séjourné for “thinking out of the box.”
Warsaw changing position
French President Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine last month and shortly after many European countries, including Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland stated that they had no such plans. The Baltic countries, known for their “anti-Russian fuss”, seem very receptive to Paris’s ideas.
Meanwhile, it seems that Warsaw is also changing its position. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk tweeted: “The post-war epoch is gone. We are living in new times: in a pre-war epoch. This is why NATO and solidarity between Europe and America are more important than ever before.”
The lower house of the Polish Parliament, Sejm has approved a bill suspending the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that deployment of NATO forces to Ukraine is “not unthinkable”. And he expressed his support for Paris by saying, “I appreciate President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative because it is about making Putin fear us, not us being afraid of Putin.”
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto criticized France and Poland’s initiatives to send troops to Ukraine, stating in an interview with La Stampa that Paris and Warsaw don’t have the right to speak for all NATO members. Crosetto added that such a move would only escalate tension and harm diplomatic efforts to end conflicts between Moscow and Kyiv.
Berlin being pushed into the fire
Another country involved in the developments is, of course, the UK. In a statement to the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that London is “ready to work with Berlin” to solve the issues preventing Germany from providing long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv.
It’s worth remembering that the leaked meeting exposed German generals planning an attack on the Kerch Bridge, connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland, with the Taurus missiles. The meeting of the generals caused concerns in Germany not with its content, but rather the fact it was leaked. Someone may be attempting to keep Berlin away from Paris’s ambitions in Ukraine. While Germany has not explicitly expressed willingness to join the alliance led by Paris, France and the UK are striving to involve Germany in the conflict.
While European hawks continue warmongering, interesting statements and news are coming from the US, which Western media might prefer to label as “Russian propaganda”. According to some analyses, Washington is aware that the situation in Ukraine has reached an impasse and is engaging in talks with Moscow behind the scenes. To observe how this contradicts with the politics of Macron and his supporters, let’s look at some examples from American media sources between March 8-11.
Growing “Russian affection” in the US press
The New York Times, which renowned Brazilian journalist Pepe Escobar describes as the “publishing of the CIA”, started “Russian propaganda” about two weeks ago by revealing around a thousand elite-level Ukrainian soldiers were captured as they withdrew from Avdeyevka. That drew big criticism from Kyiv authorities.
Similarly, CNN, through its correspondent speaking with civilians in the town of Chasiv Yar, concluded that people living in the town were content with Russia’s advances:
“Standing outside an aid distribution point, one man said: ‘Peace is peace. I want to see my granddaughter. She is in Moscow. My sister is in Kaliningrad. Half of Russia are my relatives. But I’m here alone.’
Another woman, who asked to speak anonymously, said Ukrainian soldiers had based themselves near civilians, were drawing Russian fire on the area, and were using up local resources. ‘No water, no gas, no power, nothing. When we go for water, there are soldiers getting water too. And they take all the water… They drive straight to the houses where people live. And fire right from the house. They hide behind the civilians’ backs.’ she said.
They anxiously asked not to be shown on camera, and even seemed welcoming of a potential Russian advance.”
Reuters, which had closed its doors to positive news about Vladimir Putin for quite some time, has published an intriguing piece in the current context. In an unusual move, Reuters extensively covered the Russian President’s speech praising women and family values on International Women’s Day. Almost “Putin propaganda”! Reuters also highlighted a “beautiful pose” of the Putin with women soldiers, something commonly in any other Western mainstream media outlet.
A bankrupt policy and empty hopes
Daniel Depetris, an American writer whose articles are published in various Western media outlets, said that NATO would not engage in direct military conflict with Russia to defend Ukraine. According to Depetris, “If NATO does not want to fight for Ukraine today, it is unlikely to be eager to do so tomorrow. And Putin knows this” and “it is time for the alliance to honestly admit to Ukraine that it is not welcome in the organization.” He added that “neither the US, nor Germany, nor the UK are ready to risk national security to save Kyiv”.
The writer depicted a realistic picture of Western policy on Kyiv: “Instead of laying it bare to Ukraine (that the West has no reason to fight Russia over Ukraine), they prefer to keep Ukraine’s hopes afloat with a bizarre combination of flowery phrases, approving pats on the back, and virtuous grandstanding.”
Former US military intelligence officer Scott Ritter stated in YouTube channel Ask The Inspector, that prominent anti-Russian figure, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, has “resigned from her position” due to “fundamental disagreements” with the White House on Ukraine policy: “She was called on the carpet and told to stop or, if she couldn’t do it, to resign. She resigned. Her vision of how we should act regarding Ukraine no longer corresponds to reality, even the Biden administration has begun to understand this.”
White flag
There has been a significant increase in this kind of news, visuals and statements that have never been seen in the mainstream US media since the start of Russia’s special military operation. On the other hand, while Europe had rejected to become a part of the war even when the war seemed to advance in favor of Ukraine, a fraction led by Macron today wants to advance the US policy that has gone bankrupt and caused the demission of Victoria Nuland.
Adding Pope Francis’s words on top of all this, “The strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates,” it appears that the coming weeks will be a period of sharpening alignments.