Telegraph columnist: Macron’s European troops plan for Ukraine – "empty gesture"

Owen Matthews, a columnist for the British newspaper The Telegraph, stated that French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to send European soldiers to Ukraine is an “empty gesture of solidarity” that, in his view, “Putin would never allow.”

Matthews argues that the idea of deploying European troops is unworkable because it disregards Moscow’s position.

“European leaders have refused to engage with the Kremlin since the start of the full-scale invasion, and therefore seem not to have heard Putin’s repeated categorical objection to NATO military presence in Ukraine,” Matthews noted.

He believes such statements do not solve the problem but worsen it, as one of the main motives behind Russia’s invasion was to prevent Ukraine from drawing closer to NATO.

“Europe is deceiving Ukraine. No troops will come to its aid,” the journalist wrote.

Matthews also pointed out that the latest meeting of the “coalition of the willing” omitted any mention of Ukraine’s membership in the alliance, which he described as meeting one of the Kremlin’s key demands.

“The West has always helped Ukraine on the principle of ‘too little, too late.’ And when it comes to European peacekeepers, it is merely another empty display of support for Volodymyr Zelensky,” the columnist concluded.

By Khagan Isayev