Ground operations in Ukraine by Western forces may be necessary “at some point,” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed in an interview published Saturday evening by Le Parisien, AFP and Agerpres reported.

“Maybe at some point – I don’t want to, I won’t take the initiative – ground operations, whatever they are, will be necessary to counter Russian forces,” President Macron said after returning from Berlin, where he met with leaders. German and Polish.

“The strength of France is that we can do it,” he added.

In the German capital, Emmanuel Macron met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as a sign of unity between the three countries.

Repeated statements by President Emmanuel Macron, who refuses to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine, have raised concerns among Paris’s allies, primarily Germany, and drawn near-unanimous disapproval from the opposition in France.

France, different from Germany

In an interview with Le Parisien, the president dismissed any differences between Franco-Germans on this topic. “I wanted to come to Germany very quickly so as not to start a discussion about strategic differences that might exist: they don’t exist,” he explained, according to News.ro.

“There have never been disagreements between me and the Chancellor of Germany. We have very similar points of view regarding the goals and the situation. The difference is how we translate them,” he continued, emphasizing the “strategic cultures” of the two countries.

“Germany has a strategic culture of great caution and non-interference and keeps a distance from nuclear weapons,” he explains. “This is a completely different model than France, which has nuclear weapons and supports and strengthens military professionals,” he explains. added

The French president added that he refused to go to Kyiv in favor of Berlin on Friday for talks with Olaf Scholz and Donald Tusk.

“We cannot be intimidated”

He promised to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Ukraine by mid-March, the visit was planned for February and then postponed. Now he says the visit will take place in the coming weeks.

He also emphasized the complementary nature of the assistance that France and Germany can offer.

“Germany spends more than France, has more budget space, and this is an opportunity. France can do what Germany can’t,” he told Le Parisien, before putting Russia’s power into perspective.

“We cannot be intimidated, we are not against a great state. Russia is a medium-sized country with nuclear weapons, but its GDP is much smaller than that of the Europeans, smaller than that of Germany or France,” he said.