French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday “accepted” the call for a “strategic leap” in his earlier statement, in which he mentioned the possibility of sending foreign troops to Ukraine and also warned against the “spirit of defeat” in the war with Russia. a joint press conference with his Czech colleague Petr Pavel was held in Prague.

“Is it our war or not our war? Can we avoid it, believe that everything can continue to happen? I don’t think so, and that’s why it’s a strategic leap that I called for and that I fully accept,” Macron said, adding that the “clarity” of his statements was what “Europe needs,” according to AFP, EFE and Agerpres .

“Russia must not win this war,” Macron insisted. But, he added, “we don’t want escalation, we have never been hostile.”

Speaking together with the President of the Czech Republic, Peter Pavel, Emmanuel Macron assessed the initiative of the Czech Republic to purchase artillery ammunition from outside the EU to support Ukraine as “extremely useful”. “We support it, we will participate in it,” “we are ready to contribute,” the French president also said, without specifying how much France would contribute to this initiative.

The Czech Republic has announced that it has identified sources for the rapid acquisition of about 500,000 155 mm and about 300,000 122 mm shells from third countries, but EU countries must still finance these purchases, while the Ukrainian army is facing an ammunition crisis.

On the other hand, the French president on Tuesday announced his absolute commitment to the proposal to tax “within the legal framework” of international law Russian assets frozen in the West as a result of the sanctions imposed on Russia, which, in his opinion, would allow for amounts between 3 and 5 billion euros , which can be transferred to Ukraine.

At the end of the international conference in support of Ukraine, in which about 20 heads of state and government took part in Paris last Monday, President Macron did not rule out that some of the allied countries of Kyiv will send troops to Ukraine, because, he explained, while Russian troops are advancing in the east of Ukraine , “nothing can be ruled out in the dynamics” and “we must do everything possible so that Russia does not win this war.” At the same time, the main countries providing military support to Ukraine in the war with Russia, including the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Poland and others, distanced themselves from Macron’s proposal and assured that they have no intention of sending troops to the Ukrainian front.

In turn, the President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel, after meeting with Macron on Tuesday, said that he is in favor of considering the issue of sending military aid to Ukraine, which will not participate in combat missions.

“There is a fear of talking about combat forces, but we are talking about forms of aid,” the Czech president, an army general who served in NATO, said vaguely. “We cannot remain (only) on the kind of aid we provide today” to Ukraine, Petro Pavel added.