'We don't want to trigger a Third World War,' Macron says on sending troops to Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that massive sanctions would be imposed against Russia in order to achieve a ceasefire in the coming days . The comments were made in an interview with French TV channel TF1 , where the head of state also said that France is “ready to open” a discussion on the deployment of French aircraft armed with nuclear “bombs” in other European countries.

“Our will is to apply sanctions” if Russia “confirms its non-respect” of a ceasefire in Ukraine, Macron assured, referring mainly to “secondary sanctions” on financial services or fuel.

The head of state, however, estimated that there is no “legal framework” for using the frozen Russian assets and that this “is not a good solution”.

“We have assembled the coalition of European willing countries. The United States has already followed suit,” he said. “Russia refuses an unconditional ceasefire,” he recalled. “At this moment the president of the European Union is discussing with the president of the United States and the (American) Senate and we are coordinating on sanctions,” he said.

“We want to go against Russia, but keep the United States on our side ,” he said.

Third World War

Macron also once again positioned himself against sending French troops to Ukraine.

“From day one we know that Russia will not stop in Ukraine. From day one we decided on sanctions and we maintained our unity and we helped Ukraine” with “considerable funding and we decided not to use our troops,” the French president reiterated.

“We have decided to help Ukraine , but never to escalate (…) That is why Ukraine’s allied countries have decided not to send troops” to the ground, the president continued. “We do not want to trigger a Third World War,” he insisted.

“I have immense respect and admiration for the soldiers and the Ukrainian people and their leadership,” he said, “but we can only give them time. We have given everything we could,” he said.

Ukrainian territory

Even the Ukrainians have the “lucidity to say” that they will not be able to retake all their territories after the conflict with Russia, the French president declared. “The war must end and Ukraine must be in the best possible position to enter into negotiations,” which “will allow territorial issues to be addressed. And even the Ukrainians themselves have the clarity to say (…) that they will not be able to retake everything that has been taken since 2014” by Russia, the head of state declared.

On the other hand, he stated that France is “ready to open” a discussion on the deployment of French aircraft armed with nuclear “bombs” in other European countries, similar to what the Americans are doing to share their nuclear protection.

“I will define the framework very officially in the coming weeks and months,” the head of state said. He specified three conditions for this reflection on France’s nuclear deterrence: “France will not pay for the security of others,” “this will not happen at the expense of what we need for ourselves,” and finally, “the final decision will always rest with the president, head of the armed forces.”