March 8, 2024 (EIRNS)—Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, speaking on March 8 on a visit to Finland, which joined NATO in April 2023, said that the ongoing discussions about deploying Western troops into Ukraine must stop. “No one really wants ground forces in Ukraine, there is a discussion about it now, so we have to stop it at this stage,” Pistorius said. Pistorius was recently burnt by the leaked discussions by German general officers regarding a strike from Ukraine against the Crimean Bridge. Finland also ruled out the possibility of deploying troops to Ukraine.
Earlier, both the Czech Republic and Poland had declared that they did not intend to send troops to Ukraine. Poland, however, is more than happy to send more troops to Lithuania. The Polish decision was reiterated on March 7 by its Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. Speaking to TVN24, he said, “The Polish Army will not be in Ukraine. We will help, we will continue the support. We are making further donations of equipment. There is a lot to it.”
Most likely, the French troops, operating in a non-NATO conflict would simply become cannon fodder. There is also a mistaken belief that if NATO countries provide Ukraine with more weapons they can turn the tide against Russia. Macron still insists that he will send troops to Ukraine if Russia takes Kiev or Odessa. If France does that, which would be on the basis of specific agreements it reached with Ukraine, it is still an open question whether that would trigger NATO defense articles for the bloc as a whole. However the number of deployable Ukrainians is rapidly dwindling because of the massive deaths on the battlefield and the mass exodus of Ukrainians to other European countries.
Hungary and Slovakia are even more adamant on this issue. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that he would not allow direct participation of Slovak military personnel in the Ukrainian conflict, even if this would cost him his post as head of government. He said that the West is moving toward making the worst possible decision in this respect, which “will give you chills.”
