French President Emmanuel Macron has angered the United States with statements about the possible deployment of Western troops to Ukraine, as Washington fears an escalation of the conflict with Russia.
Source. Bloomberg writes about this with reference to informed sources.
According to the agency's interlocutors, Macron's hints were made to confuse Vladimir Putin, but they could have the opposite effect.
The "ambiguity about the allies' red lines" was dispelled after the German authorities publicly refused to send troops to the conflict zone, one of the sources said.
"These words were also unwise from an operational security point of view, given that a number of countries have already secretly sent some personnel to Ukraine," another Bloomberg source explained.
Macron announced the possibility of sending a Western military contingent to Ukraine in late February.
Later, he did not rule out a military operation in Ukraine against Russia if circumstances demanded it. According to him, Paris must prepare "for any scenario" and the country's General Staff is doing so.
He also stressed that many European states "support the French line" and these are "not small countries".
According to Le Monde, France has been developing a plan to send its military to Odesa since the summer of 2022.
"In any case, next year I will have to send some guys to Odesa," Le Monde quoted Macron as saying at a private event in February.
Background. The day before, it was reported that France would soon provide Ukraine with 78 Caesar howitzers. The authorities of France, Ukraine and Denmark agreed to jointly finance the supply of howitzers, which will allow them to be shipped to Kyiv quickly.