France hints at exceeding armaments in support of Ukraine. Borrell: We will not die for Donbass
 
Afrasianet - After Macron's remarks, which sparked controversy over sending military troops to Ukraine, the French army chief of staff reveals that Western support for Kiev may go beyond arms deliveries, and the EU high representative says the latter "will not go to death" for Donbass.

Bdoze: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did not rule out that Western forces will appear in Ukraine within 3 to 4 months.

Asked about the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine, Orban said on Radio Kosut: "The most worrying thing is that two or three months ago it was inconceivable to send Western troops to Ukraine. After two or three months, it will become a regular occurrence."

Orban said Germany had previously said it would not send lethal weapons to Ukraine, but now it confirms it will move missile systems to Kiev.

Orbán reiterated that "what is absurd now and impossible to believe becomes reality in two or three months."

In fact, Russia's leak of a conversation between the head of the German air force and senior officers about sending Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine revealed that NATO's will not to escalate the current war is weakening.

 With the conflict in Ukraine at an impasse, NATO's strategy has lost all coherence. This is the moment when such wars get out of hand."

"For two years now, Western leaders have burnished their masculine image at home by visiting Kiev President Volodymyr Zelensky and urging him to seek complete victory with their help," she noted.

It was also expected that "complete victory was out of the question at all," adding that "Moscow is at war and can always play for a long time."

Although it seemed horrible at the time, the deal put forward in the spring of 2022 to return to some version -- almost any version -- of the pre-February 2022 borders made sense.

Instead, Ukraine looks more like NATO mercenaries than ever to Western generals who want to boost their budgets and revive the Cold War games played in their youth.

Western Europe "has no conceivable interest in escalating the war in Ukraine through the exchange of long-range missiles," she said.

While Europe must maintain its logistical support for Ukrainian forces, it has no strategic interest in Kiev's desire to expel Russia from the predominantly Russian-speaking regions of Crimea or Donbass, and has every interest in relentlessly seeking an early settlement and starting to rebuild Ukraine.

As for the "soft power" sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, the newspaper considered that they "failed miserably, which led to the disruption of the global trade economy in the process."

While the sanctions may be popular with Western diplomats and think tanks, they do the most harm to energy users in Britain, not Russia, and they have not destroyed the Russian economy or changed Putin's mind.

Kiev admits that the Ukrainian military is currently in  a "very difficult" situation  against Russian forces, who have indicated they are launching attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine after seizing the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk People's Republic.

Moscow has long warned that the West's announcement of its intention to send U.S. and German tanks to Ukraine and offensive weapons could cause a global catastrophe leading to Russian retaliatory measures that see the use of more powerful weapons.

Italy's deputy prime minister calls Macron a threat to Europe

 Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini accused French President Emmanuel Macron of endangering Europe by opening the door to the idea of sending Western troops to Ukraine.

Salvini, speaking at a rally in Rome of right-wing and nationalist European leaders in preparation for the European Parliament elections in June, said Macron's proposal to send troops to Ukraine was "too dangerous, excessive, and unbalanced."

In his speech, in which he stressed the values of conservative families, the Italian official said: "I believe that President Macron, in his words, poses a danger to our country and our continent."

"The problem is not mothers and fathers, but advocates of war like Macron. They talk about war as if there is no problem right now."

"I don't want to leave our children a continent that is preparing to enter a third world war," Salvini said.

On the other hand, the chief of staff of the French army believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin "built his maneuver on the idea, that the West will never go to Ukraine," "but will be satisfied with the provision of weapons," and said: "We must show Putin that he will not be able to use this logic to go to Ukraine."

 Macron stresses that sending military forces to Ukraine is "not excluded", saying: "We as Europe see the defeat of Russia as indispensable for Europe'  s security."Macron, speaking to the newspapers Le Journal du Dimanche, Le Figaro and Radio France Internationale, hoped  to "defeat Russia in Ukraine."

 During a meeting with French opposition leaders in early March, Macron stressed that for France "there are no determinants and no red lines" on the issue of helping Ukraine.

 The Russian presidency responded to Macron's remarks, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "a direct military conflict between NATO and Russia will be inevitable," if Western troops are sent to Ukraine, adding: "In this case, it will not be about possibility, but about inevitability."

For his part, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, said that "Russia has information that France is preparing a military unit to send to Ukraine."

In contrast, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said ahead of the EU summit that the EU "will not go to death for the Donbass region", but rather about "helping Ukrainians not to kill for Donbass, or not to be killed in Kiev when it is bombed."

"People should not be frightened that war is inevitable," he said, explaining that "the need to support Ukraine is inevitable."

Borrell urged "not to exaggerate" the risk of the EU being dragged into military conflict, stressing that "Brussels supports Ukraine, but it is not part of the conflict" and that "war is not inevitable."

"We live in peace, we support Ukraine, without being part of this war," he said, but "we must prepare for the future and increase our defense capabilities."

Macron's remarks were sharply criticized by a number of NATO partners, including Germany and Italy, as well as political forces in France.

For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on Borrell's remarks via Telegram, saying that "the European Union will not die for Donbass, because the dead do not die twice."

On Feb. 26, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his decision to refuse to deliver long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, stressing that their supply meant that Germany "will become a party to the war against Russia."

But all these statements do not hide the intentions of the Atlantic West against Russia: NATO has begun building a large NATO base, at a cost of 2.5 billion euros, in Romania. This military facility is being built at Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, where about five thousand American troops are stationed.

Many media outlets describe the NATO base being built in Romania as the largest in Europe, but retired military observer Colonel Viktor Litovkin explained to Argomenti e Facti that these statements are far from the truth: "The largest base in Europe is Ramstein in Germany, where 40,000 troops are stationed. The new base in Romania will house 10,000 troops."

Litovkin explained Romania's choice to build the base by the deplorable situation of the Ukrainian armed forces on the front. "Ukraine is losing access to the Black Sea. Soon, the Nikolaev and Odessa regions will become part of Russia. The United States needs to strengthen its presence on the Black Sea in order to counter Russia."

"There are three Black Sea coastal states that are members of NATO: Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. The Americans understand that Bulgaria and Romania are weak links in the NATO chain, so they want to strengthen their presence, near Russia's borders, in order to contain Russia and control trade routes. From the Bosphorus to Odessa the road passes through Romania. Not to mention that Crimea is close, where they need to be spied, especially since there is a base for heavy drones on the territory of Romania, which they use to direct missiles, drones and drones to Crimea and against ships of the Black Sea Fleet."

In Ukraine, the fronts are on the brink of dramatic rolling, and the Western powers lining up behind Kiev are aware of this reality, which has been captured by Pope Francis' call for Ukrainians to boldly raise the white flag and demand peace through negotiations with Russia.

Commenting on the French president's remarks, Russian President Dmitry Peskov's press secretary stressed: "If Western troops are sent to Ukraine, a direct military conflict between NATO and the Russian Federation will be inevitable."

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorsky revealed that a group of NATO countries had already sent their military forces to Ukraine, and stated that NATO soldiers were already there.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on his statement: "They (Westerners) can no longer hide the presence of NATO military personnel in Ukraine."

Moscow has long warned that the West's announcement of its intention to send U.S. and German tanks to Ukraine and offensive weapons could cause a global catastrophe leading to Russian retaliatory measures that see the use of more powerful weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov points out in an interview with the news agency "TASS" that French President Emmanuel Macron is also making these statements in order to provoke NATO allies and the matter has nothing to do with the so-called "strategic sovereign independence."

All the conversations Macron has had over the past few years (periodically revived through the media space) about creating a kind of strategic independence – all of this turned out to be nothing, with the excuse for using this common expression, "and today no one thinks about this at all."

He stressed that politicians and the younger generation in the Baltic states put forward such ideas.

"In Poland, politicians are mature, but they are also willing to play such a provocative game. In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still showing at least some caution. But  France's provocation of the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine aims, among other things, to undermine its (Berlin) position in the EU in the context of the Franco-German rivalry."

 From within this same climate, fearful voices have risen in Europe, with a phrase that has become the dominant tone among European elites in favor of further incursions into the Ukraine crisis: "Russia will not stop in Ukraine." Some give it more propaganda meaning by saying that "Putin will not stop in Europe," restoring the Western propaganda style of demonizing leaders of countries opposed to Western hegemony.

The phrase has been widely used throughout the West, and is useful in the context of intimidation of Russia, which they say invaded Ukraine because it wants to restore its old empire, while some say that current events are an expression of Putin's expansionist dreams, but in both cases forget that the current war in Ukraine was the moment of the explosion of a path at least 35 years old of NATO's continued expansion into and around the Russian border.

It is quite similar to the direct Western customary trials on October 7, 2023, when Western officials united their voices and throats called for the enormity of Hamas's action and its attack on "civilians" and the false propaganda propaganda propagated by officials before the public and the media about the commission of rape and child burning... The confessions of the Israeli press, then the Western press, then some Israeli officials, and even Western officials proved to be false, and that they were used to amplify anger against the Palestinians and to facilitate the task of the Israeli army in exterminating them without anyone sympathizing with them.

There is a great similarity between forgetting NATO expansion and trying to blockade and suffocate Russia, playing within its society in values, cultural promotion and economic penetration. And between forgetting the reality of occupation and replacement in the land of others for 75 years preceding the seventh of October and its events.

Now, French President Emmanuel Macron has come out to cry out in dismay at Russia's victory, saying that its victory would be a disaster for Europe, as did his spoiled Prime Minister Gabrielle Attal, who detailed the repercussions of the Russian victory on measuring the interests of French citizens known for their great concern for their money that this victory will severely negatively affect the standard of living of the French and their economy.

They called for the need to send NATO soldiers to Ukraine, trying to test the Russian pulse on this idea, so is Moscow ready to accept this step without a lightning reaction, which makes Macron the hero who protected Ukraine from collapse or that Putin will not tolerate that, and will determine the laws of the game and the red line allowed for Macron's electoral and political games?

Waiting for the answer that was not long overdue, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, wrote an article in the French newspaper "Libération", in which he called on Europeans to activate the "war economy" and prepare to increase war efforts and send more weapons to Ukraine.

He said European countries should increase the proportion of defense spending in public budgets, which is about 2%, to try to parallel this with the 6% in Russia.

Many frightened European officials today say what Charles Michel said in his article, that European security cannot be determined by the mood of American presidents and the tremors that accompany American electoral stations, and they fear that America will leave them alone in the face of Russia, after it implicated them in cutting the lifelines that fed their economies with cheap Russian energy sources, which opened up opportunities for European economies more than they provided energy.

European well-being is rapidly declining from the moment the Nord Stream lines were blown up. Europeans are divided between misguided, possessed, incapacitated and unconscious.

These few know that a diabolical trap was drawn for them when the growing relations with Russia were portrayed as against their interest: the European security space cannot be stable without Russia, and to be more precise, without cooperation between Russia and Western Europe. Merkel tried to ignore this and act as if she did not realize America's red lines. At the first opportunity she walked away, Olaf Scholz came, and Nord Stream disappeared.

The Russian answer to the European test and the French pulse was more serious than ever, with Russian President Putin and Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev speaking, followed by numerous positions from Russian officials confirming that French or Atlantic soldiers who will be sent to Ukraine will no longer be alive. In parallel with this tough stance, hours later, Russian planes were firing on what the Russians said were headquarters from which targets on Russian territory were run, with the participation of NATO.

In this atmosphere, the results of the Russian elections were a shock to Western leaders who could not accept Putin winning a fifth term and assuming the throne of exemplary political stability for a leader leading a foreign war.

Instead of wise voices in the West trying to stop the Ukrainian bloodshed through negotiations with Russia, voices calling for going further in the fighting, in a war that has spoken within the limits of conventional warfare, what more could be needed?

To eliminate the remaining Ukrainian men or push young Europeans into the furnace of battle, whose birth rates are at their lowest level, and whose economies lack the labor force required to maintain their standards of life, especially since the Europeans themselves diving into the mud of Ukraine will not attract Americans with them, but will repeat what happened in the two world wars? America stands on the hill of war, debates with the belligerents, intervenes at the last moment, declaring its victory and leading the rest world.

Russia, for its part, finds itself obliged not to back down, as allowing the French move to be carried out means accepting direct military intervention by NATO in Ukraine, thus risking losing the war, if it remains traditional. Therefore, it is expected to make the first Atlantic country to enter Ukraine an example to others, even if it forces it to use parts of its unconventional or now undisclosed capabilities.

All of this makes Western choices difficult, but one loss in two crises could push the West into a dynamic of disintegration, especially as Trump approaches.

In general, what does it mean for Russia to say it is at war now instead of the usual designation that it is carrying out a special operation? Let's wait and we'll see!!