In February, French President Emmanuel Macron created a stir among his European Union and NATO allies when he declared that the West should consider deploying troops to Ukraine. Though his remarks were immediately repudiated by several of his European counterparts, they reflect fears in Europe and the U.S. that Ukraine is losing the war against Russian aggression.
Macron’s timing was no coincidence. It came just weeks after a lack of ammunition and artillery forced Ukrainian forces to retreat from the city of Avdiivka, despite four months of heavy fighting that cost Russian forces over 47,000 soldiers and 360 tanks. The growing concern about the Ukrainian military’s ability to resist the Russian onslaught in 2024 has been compounded by the political impasse in Washington over funding the next tranche of military aid for Kyiv.
Macron justified his proposal by saying the West needed to introduce “strategic ambiguity” in its approach to Ukraine in order to throw Russia off balance. Russian President Putin has warned that sending NATO troops to Ukraine could result in nuclear war, but the West has crossed several of Putin’s red lines in the past with impunity. In fact, it is now certain that British troops are present inside Ukraine, while numerous reports suggest the presence of special operations forces from several other Western countries as well.