In an interview with the TF1 and France 2 TV channels, the President of France Emmanuel Macron informed that Russia should not win the war against Ukraine, and Paris (and not only) should help in every way to prevent this from happening.
In general, in the almost 40-minute conversation, a change in Macronʼs rhetoric was observed, as he began to formulate a more confident and tougher position regarding the options for the development of the war and the need to stop it. The theses of the French president did not contain specific decisions or announcements, but his rhetoric was full of conditional assumptions about how France would act "if...".
Do not allow Russia to win
"Russia cannot and should not win this war. We have been helping Ukraine for two years, and if the situation worsened, it would again be Russiaʼs sole responsibility. If today we choose to be weak in the face of someone who has no limits, who has crossed all possible boundaries that he has drawn before us, and naively say to him: ʼWe will not go further than this or that...ʼ At this moment we are not talking about peace. We are talking about defeat. [...] We just have to make it clear: we must not allow Russia to win."
Sending troops to Ukraine
Macron said the deployment of ground forces was not currently on the agenda, but Europe should keep "all options" open in case the war spreads.
"We are not in that situation today," he said, without explaining in which situation France would be ready to send troops.
According to Macron, if France is forced to send troops to Ukraine, "the only one who will be responsible is the Kremlin regime."
"It wonʼt be us. We will never go on the offensive, we will never seize the initiative," he assured.
"France is a force for peace. But today, in order to have peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak. Therefore, we must look soberly at the situation and say with determination, will and courage that we are ready to invest resources to achieve our goal, which is that Russia does not win," added Macron.
Strengthening support
Macron warned allies against imposing restrictions on support for Ukraine, saying that European security is at stake in Russiaʼs war against Ukraine: "If Russia continues its escalation, if the situation worsens, we must be ready to take the decisions necessary to ensure that Russia never won".
A condition for lasting peace
"There cannot be lasting peace if there is no sovereignty, if there is no return to the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, including Crimea."
Nuclear weapons
Commenting on Putinʼs statements about nuclear weapons, the French president emphasized that "it is inappropriate to threaten when you have nuclear weapons." At the same time, Macron advised the French to feel protected because France is a nuclear power.
"We are ready. We have a doctrine. When it comes to nuclear weapons, not many words are needed, it is a security tool. This places the responsibility on us never to resort to escalation," Macron said.
If Russia wins
"If Russia wins this war, trust in Europe will be destroyed. What will be the trust in our land for the authorities of the European Union, whose members would allow this to happen? Do you think that the Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians, Romanians, Bulgarians could stay in peace even for a second? And Iʼm not even talking about Moldova, which, of course, is not in the European Union today, but which will be in danger in the next second."
Description of Putin
Macron refused to call Putin an autocrat or a dictator, but described him as a man who "caught a repressive and authoritarian drift in his country and chose for himself the role of a destabilizing force in several theaters of war."
The French president also called himself a "responsible leader" who tried for the longest time to persuade Putin to stop aggression against Ukraine.