The head of British diplomacy, David Cameron, in an interview with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, published on Saturday, spoke against sending Western troops to Ukraine, even to train soldiers there, AFP and Agerpres report.

David CameronPhoto: Juliane Sonntag/DPA/Profimedia

When asked whether, in his opinion, it is reasonable to exclude any sending of Western soldiers to Ukraine in the current situation, Cameron answered the German publication: “Training missions are better to be conducted outside the country. In Great Britain, we trained 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers.”

“We must avoid creating obvious targets for Putin,” David Cameron said, according to his remarks, translated into German by the newspaper cited.

On February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron caused intense controversy after declaring that sending Western troops to Ukraine cannot be ruled out in the future.

The British government responded a day later, saying that a “small number” of people sent by Great Britain were already in Ukraine “to support the Ukrainian armed forces, in particular in terms of medical training”. “We do not envisage the deployment (of British troops in Ukraine) on a larger scale,” continued the British Prime Minister’s spokesman Rishi Sunak.

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Friday that sending “combat ground troops” to Ukraine is not under consideration. However, he assessed that there are opportunities for “demining, for the training of the Ukrainian military on Ukrainian territory.” “The more Ukraine has to build up its army, the more important will be the need to improve the training” of the Ukrainian military, the French minister added.

Cameron insists that Germany send Taurus missiles to Ukraine

At the same time, in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, David Cameron confirmed the usefulness, in his opinion, of long-range weapons to support Ukraine and expressed the idea of ​​helping Berlin overcome its reluctance to supply Kiev with manufactured products. German Taurus missiles

Asked if London could help Germany resolve the problems preventing the delivery of the Taurus missiles, Cameron said: “We are keen to work closely with our German partners on this issue, as well as with others to help Ukraine.”

Then Süddeutsche Zeitung asked Cameron about the option that the press had already mentioned in January: this is a kind of barter, according to which Berlin will supply Taurus missiles to London, and then Great Britain will supply Ukraine with other Storm Shadow missiles.

“We are ready to consider all options to achieve the maximum effect for Ukraine. But I will not give details and I will not reveal to our adversaries what we intend to do,” Cameron said.

Fearing an escalation of the conflict, Berlin for several months refused to supply Kyiv with Taurus missiles with a range of more than 500 km, which, therefore, if they were in Ukraine, could target targets much deeper into Russian territory.

Starting from May of last year, Kyiv received Storm Shadow/Scalp missiles (range 250 km) supplied by France and Great Britain, then American ATACMS missiles (range 165 km).

____

  • Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro