This is how serious Macron is when it comes to threatening Putin: Stadler supplies more locomotives to New Zealand

The message is clear. “The defeat of Russia is essential,” Emmanuel Macron said at a Ukrainian conference in Paris on Monday evening. According to the French president, the purpose of the meeting, which was convened at short notice, was to send a signal to Moscow that Europe is far from tired of war.

“We are ready to do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war.”Macron repeated several times to add a point: the question remains open whether this includes sending ground troops to Ukraine. “But nothing can be ruled out in favor of dynamics.”

Specifically, Macron, as host of the conference, took up a Czech suggestion that the Allies, due to a lack of their own supplies, should buy ammunition outside Europe to help the Ukrainian army. Dutch Prime Minister Marke Rutte said his government would release “more than 100 million euros” for this; other countries would follow.

For his part, Macron announced that the conference had decided to form a coalition to equip Ukraine with “medium and long-range missiles and bombs.” According to military experts, this ammunition would enable attacks behind Russian lines – if possible even beyond Ukrainian borders.

A tip against Berlin

The announcement in Paris comes just a day after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his opposition to the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles. Intentionally or not, Macron’s announcement contains a joke about Scholz’s position.

Especially since the Chancellor had called for more financial efforts from Europeans a few days ago. This rubbed the French the wrong way. Their military aid to Ukraine, which amounted to about four billion euros, represented only a quarter of Germany’s expenditure.

Macron, who now wants to add three billion euros, knows that the idea of ​​sending ground troops will be rejected, especially in Germany. The president made it explicitly clear that the initiative was not based on any “consensus.”

It seems more important to Macron to show Putin the limits. According to him, the death of opposition politician Alexei Navalny and the endless mobilization of Russian troops on the Ukrainian front indicate a “hardening” of Putin’s actions. The Kremlin is clearly counting on the growing indifference, if not rejection, of the European population towards the war, Macron explained.

For this reason, Paris has been warning emphatically for days about the ‘hybrid war’ that Russia is waging in the form of disinformation, propaganda and cyber attacks, especially against EU states. On Tuesday it emerged in Paris that the Star of David graffiti – which appeared in Paris at the start of the conflict in the Middle East – was the work of the Russian secret service FSB; He is clearly trying to stir up new banlieue tensions in France.

“War chief” Macron?

It is not the first time that Macron has overlooked that his uncoordinated solo initiative is not necessarily conducive to Western unity. The rejection is likely to be evident in many EU capitals.

There is also no shortage of criticism in Paris itself. The Putin-friendly right-wing populist Marine Le Pen accuses Macron of wanting to play ‘war leader’; Left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who also has a list for Moscow, speaks of ‘madness’. Even defense expert Alain Bauer, who is close to Macron, distanced himself by explaining that the more pressing issue was not ground forces, but rather the supply of new ammunition.

Macron may also have been aware that his advances threatened to split the front against Putin. To once again put himself in the spotlight and divert attention from France’s meager military aid to Kiev: this is not happening: Macron has arguments as always, even if it is only the suggestion that the allies should remain “ambivalent” – in other respects. words: You should not allow yourself to be looked at by consciously ‘not ruling anything out’.

Macron is overlooking something essential: just constantly talking about such a possibility without following up for days carries the risk that your opponent will no longer be taken seriously.

And for now, it seems truly impossible that Macron’s words will be followed by action.