Spain against sending EU troops to Ukraine, following Macron’s comments

Scholz said ‘that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil who are sent there by European states or NATO states’.

Scholz said there was also consensus ‘that soldiers operating in our countries also are not participating actively in the war themselves’.

At a meeting in Prague on Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, ‘Poland does not plan to send its troops to Ukraine.’

Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic insisted that his country ‘certainly doesn’t want to send its soldiers’.

The idea of sending troops has been taboo, particularly as NATO seeks to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. Nothing prevents NATO members from joining such an undertaking individually or in groups, but the organisation itself would only get involved if all 31 members agree.

The conference in Paris was held just after France, Germany and the UK each signed 10-year bilateral security agreements with Ukraine as its government works to shore up Western support.

European nations are worried the United States will reduce its support, as aid for Ukraine is held up in Congress. They also have concerns that former President Donald Trump might return to the White House and change the course of US policy on the continent.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, warned that a direct conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable if the alliance sends combat troops. ‘In this case, we need to talk not about probability, but about the inevitability (of conflict),’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Asisto en París a la Conferencia Internacional de apoyo a Ucrania para consolidar y aumentar nuestra asistencia al pueblo ucraniano en todos los ámbitos.

Cuando se cumplen dos años del inicio de la agresión rusa, la unidad sigue siendo nuestra mejor arma frente a Putin.

Nuestra… pic.twitter.com/3mxgPlkw1T

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) February 26, 2024