Three arguments why Macron could indeed deploy troops to Ukraine

"France is a force for peace. Today, to achieve peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak," President Emmanuel Macron explains his statements about the possible deployment of French troops to Ukraine. Macron's initiative has become the biggest international sensation of the past month.

The overall reaction from the West was predictably critical. Macron's statement was also received ambiguously in France. But where does Macron get so much boldness and readiness to go against the mainstream?

Is it a real change in approaches? And will the president be able to overcome internal and international resistance to his initiative? Read more in the detailed analysis in the joint article by Yurii Panchenko and Sergiy Sydorenko, European Pravda's editors - Macron without red lines: what's behind the French president's idea of NATO troops in Ukraine.

We should give credit to French President Emmanuel Macron: he has managed to react to changes and even abandon his own key positions. At the beginning of his presidency, Macron tried not only to find common ground with Putin but also to shift France's critical external course toward Russia, initiated by his predecessor, President Francois Hollande. Macron proposed a new foreign policy concept on dialogue and rapprochement with Russia, repeatedly emphasising this idea in his public statements.

And even after February 2022, he did not sever ties with Vladimir Putin. He was rather under the sway of (erroneous) ideas that he could influence the Russian president and convince him to end the war. He even called not to "humiliate Putin."

However, it became clear in Paris over time that these dreams were futile, and Macron's calls had no effect other than negative image-wise. We should not ignore the influence of events in Africa. The fact is that French "military diplomacy" has suffered painful defeats in countries in Central and Western Africa in recent years.

Its opponents very often had direct links to Russia. So, France's position quickly began to change politically (in spring 2022, Paris became one of the advocates for Ukraine's EU membership, and in 2023, it shifted to supporting its NATO membership) and materially. France was one of the first to have sent artillery of large caliber to Kyiv.

Paris made considerable efforts to lift the so-called "tank blockade," i.e., the West's reluctance to supply new tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and sent the so-called light tanks AMX-10 RC, which added arguments for supplying Leopard II tanks. But all this fades away, comparing to taboo lifting on sending troops to Ukraine. Even though the initiative to send troops to Ukraine lacks strong support in both the French parliament and French society, there are at least three arguments that allow us to hope for that.

Firstly, France is a former empire where state dignity matters. Threats from Russian officials have resonated in France. But instead of frightening French society, these threats seem to only reinforce the understanding that Russia's policy is a threat to Europe, including France.

Secondly, there are no signals in France that the army is dissatisfied with the idea of sending troops to Ukraine. The third argument is the peculiarity of France. The French army is the only one in the EU that has actively engaged in combat operations in several hotspots in Africa, where they often faced armed units backed by Russia.

French society has learned over the years to perceive military action as something possible and real.

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