French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne tried to defuse tensions on Tuesday over President Emmanuel Macron’s comments after he said Western countries could not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, Reuters reported.

“We need to analyze new actions to support Ukraine. They must respond to very specific needs, I mean, in particular, demining, cyber defense, weapons production in the country, on the territory of Ukraine,” said Sejourn in the parliament.

“Some of these actions may require a presence on Ukrainian territory, without the need to cross the threshold of hostilities. Nothing should be excluded. It was and remains today the position of the president of the republic,” insisted Sejourn.

Other French diplomats said throughout the day that Macron’s idea was to provoke a debate on the topic, but there was no concrete plan of action in that direction.

Macron’s message that ignited European diplomacy

“Tonight there was no agreement to officially send troops to the ground, but we cannot rule anything out,” the French president told reporters Monday night after a conference in Paris where European leaders discussed the prospect.

“We will do everything possible to prevent Russia from winning this war. And I say this with determination, but also with the collective humility that we should have in light of the last two years,” he added.

But numerous heads of government and other senior officials from NATO member states, including Germany, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic and Spain, strongly distanced themselves from the French leader’s comments on Tuesday.

The Kremlin has warned that if European NATO members send troops to fight in Ukraine, a conflict between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance will become inevitable.

“The fact that the possibility of sending certain contingents from NATO countries to Ukraine is being discussed is a very important new element,” Kremlin press secretary Dmytro Peskov said.

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