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Former diplomat Wolfang Ischinger: “Where will the champagne corks pop?”

Photo: Anna Szilagyi / EPA

French President Emmanuel Macron no longer wants to rule out the use of ground troops in Ukraine.

The idiosyncratic move has sparked strong criticism in Europe - but Wolfgang Ischinger, the former head of the Munich Security Conference, believes the idea is appropriate.

»In the conflict situation we find ourselves in with Russia, it is of course correct in principle not to rule anything out.

As soon as you rule out something, you basically make it easier for your opponent to prepare for what might come," the former top diplomat told the Welt-TV broadcaster on Tuesday evening.

He found what the French president said “a bit bold, but not wrong.”

But Ischinger also emphasized that, on the other hand, there is the right principle that NATO does not want to be drawn militarily into the war between Russia and Ukraine.

As expected, Russia's criticism of Macron's move is harsher.

The fact that the US's European allies would send their own armed forces to Ukraine was unthinkable for a long time, but is now being loudly discussed, complained the Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, on the Telegram news network.

"The American curators (of the war) understand very well where such a development of the situation can lead," he said.

The US government would be well advised to remember the basics of international politics, said Antonov, "especially in view of the special responsibility of Russia and the USA for strategic stability" in the world.

Blatant nuclear threats

Russia has repeatedly accompanied its war of aggression against Ukraine with escalation scenarios - in order to keep Western involvement down.

Individual Kremlin actors are sometimes openly threatening the danger of a third world war.

The nuclear power Russia had repeatedly threatened to use all means at its disposal to defend its interests in the event of an attack.

The NATO partners had so far ruled out direct intervention in the war.

Two years ago, Kiev's request to set up no-fly zones was rejected accordingly.

The deployment of heavy military equipment is also always associated with long debates in the West, as was the case recently with the Taurus question.

However, after a Ukraine aid conference, Macron now wants to think about ground troops for the first time.

At the meeting with more than 20 heads of state and government, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), there was no agreement on this, but nothing could be ruled out in the future course of the war, Macron said in Paris on Monday evening.

Scholz rejected Macron's proposal for a possible deployment of ground troops from NATO countries to Ukraine.

In Paris it was also agreed for the future "that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil that will be sent there by European states or NATO states," said the Chancellor on Tuesday.

Top diplomats are also noticing the tensions between Berlin and Paris.

Ischinger described it as "deeply regrettable that the German-French blessing has gone wrong in this most serious strategic, military and political crisis in which Europe has found itself in terms of security policy for many years." It is the duty of everyone involved to do everything in order to achieve “joint action in this serious crisis.” Ischinger continued: “If Germany and France present themselves with bickering and disagreement in front of the eyes of the Russians, where will the champagne corks pop?

Not in Washington and not in Italy, but in Moscow.”

mrc/dpa