Kremlin warns of conflict with NATO if alliance troops fight in Ukraine
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00:00 In other news Emmanuel Macron isn't ruling out sending European troops to Ukraine.
00:05 The French president left the suggestion on the table during a conference on Monday at
00:09 the Elysee Palace.
00:11 The gathering was intended to demonstrate continued Western support to Kiev.
00:16 European leaders also used the occasion to agree to ramp up efforts to get arms to Ukraine.
00:25 There is no consensus today to send ground troops in an official, endorsed and sanctioned
00:29 manner, but in dynamic terms, nothing should be ruled out.
00:33 We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war.
00:39 Emmanuel Macron speaking there.
00:41 We can now bring in our international affairs editor Angela Diffley.
00:44 Angela, good afternoon.
00:45 One after another we've had some European states coming out and saying no not us.
00:50 But we also had a reaction coming from Moscow saying that if we had NATO troops on the ground
00:56 in Ukraine, this would be an escalation.
00:59 Yes.
01:00 Jens Stoltenberg has also come out very clearly and said there will be no NATO troops on the
01:07 ground in Ukraine.
01:09 That would require the unanimous agreement of all NATO members.
01:14 That is not going to happen.
01:15 That will not happen.
01:16 What this is, what Emmanuel Macron is referring to is possible bilateral agreements where
01:23 individual countries will agree to send troops.
01:27 As you say, a number of them have already ruled out that possibility.
01:31 Joe Biden said right at the outset of this war, American troops are not going to Ukraine.
01:37 They will not go to Ukraine.
01:39 And given the difficulties Washington is having in getting that $60 billion worth of aid through
01:46 Congress, it would be a massively unpopular move in an election year.
01:50 That is pretty much almost certainly unlikely to happen.
01:56 France has, Macron has said very clearly, I maintain a position of strategic ambiguity.
02:05 Not ruling it in, not talking about how likely it might be.
02:09 We haven't heard specifically from the United Kingdom yet.
02:14 That is another possibility.
02:17 They might come out with a statement shortly.
02:19 A group of countries which are meeting today, the Visegrad countries, that's Hungary, Slovakia,
02:26 Poland and the Czech Republic, they're meeting.
02:29 Now that is a little group of four Central European countries which hoped to have common
02:34 interests and to be able to lobby other EU members and other NATO members on various
02:39 issues.
02:40 In reality, it is a group which often had fault lines.
02:43 And a major fault line has emerged on this issue within the Visegrad members.
02:49 Of course, Orban has been fairly complimentary about Putin on many occasions.
02:54 The Slovakian leader has questioned Ukraine's sovereignty and is generally a very slow,
03:03 unwilling supporter of efforts to support Ukraine.
03:08 On the other side you have Poland and the Czech Republic, which feel very, very threatened
03:13 by Russia.
03:14 So, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of their meeting later today.
03:19 But so far, we don't know what might emerge from this.
03:24 It's a statement from Macron intended to, in a sense, blur the lines a little.
03:34 Clearly, that was one of the bombshells that came out from Macron's mouth on Monday.
03:39 What else came out of this meeting which the Alesi hosted?
03:43 One significant area where there is also movement, and again, there will be a discussion, a coalition
03:49 of countries will talk about moving this forward, and that is the issue of long-range missiles.
03:55 Again, there is a great fear of using long-range missiles, Ukraine using European or NATO long-range
04:02 missiles, which might penetrate Russian territory, and would that be seen by Russia as a major
04:09 escalation?
04:11 That is now being actively considered.
04:13 Again, France and Britain are keen on that.
04:19 Germany has already ruled it out.
04:20 Germany has a very different, of course, military past to consider, and it's a step too far,
04:26 Olaf Scholz has already said on numerous occasions.
04:29 So their Taurus long-range missiles will not be going to Ukraine.
04:34 Another area where we saw movement is Macron has now dropped his opposition to artillery
04:40 being procured only from within the European Union.
04:45 That was something he was hoping to do, was hoping at the same time to build up Europe's
04:48 own defence capacities.
04:50 The reality is European Union countries cannot manufacture artillery quickly enough, and
04:55 the Ukrainians have been having to ration supplies to their soldiers.
05:02 Yesterday's meeting was very much about a realisation that if Russia wins, the consequences
05:08 for Europe could be extremely serious, and a realisation among these countries, the 25
05:16 or so countries that attended, that they have dithered too much, they have frequently ruled
05:21 out options only to rule them back in much later on, and the delays have caused huge
05:26 problems for Ukraine.
05:27 This is that group of countries stepping up.