- French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Ukraine war with The Economist.
- He said France could send troops if requested by Ukraine in response to a Russian breakthrough.
- His remarks about French soldiers defending Ukraine are among the most hawkish by a Western leader.
France's President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that he would consider sending French troops to Ukraine, and spelled out the conditions in which this could place.
Speaking to The Economist, Macron described the urgent threat Russia's President Vladimir Putin poses to Europe in the wake of the 2022 Ukraine invasion.
"I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," Macron said, when asked about his earlier comments that NATO troops could be deployed to help defend Ukraine.
"We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor!"
He said he would consider sending French troops to Ukraine "if the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request, which is not the case today."
He added that if Russia defeats Ukraine it would then likely seek to attack another European country.
In recent months, political and military leaders have been issuing increasingly stark warnings about the possible consequences of a Russian victory in Ukraine.
Macron's remarks about sending French troops to defend Ukraine were among the most hawkish by a Western leader.
They came as Ukraine struggled to prevent Russia from breaking through its defensive lines amid a US aid block. And though the $61 billion aid bill recently passed, Ukraine is still fighting to hold back intensifying Russian attacks.
While NATO countries have sent money and weapons to help Ukraine, they have avoided a direct confrontation amid fears it could escalate the conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.
Under Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty, members are pledged to defend each other if attacked.
The Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, in response to Macron's earlier remarks, said that deploying NATO troops to Ukraine would lead to war between Russia and the alliance.
"We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability," Peskov said, as quoted by RFE/RL.
Analysts recently discussed the likelihood of Russia attacking NATO with Business Insider, with Russian military expert Ruth Deyermond saying that Putin's regime is too weak militarily to risk a direct confrontation with NATO.
In the interview with The Economist, Macron said he was determined to prevent a Russian victory.
"We mustn't rule anything out because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine," he said.