Macron's statements at a Ukraine summit in Paris go "in the opposite direction" to what is actually needed at the moment, namely a "diplomatic perspective", criticized Schallenberg. "There was clearly no consensus on this at all in Paris yesterday," he emphasized. "And it is quite astonishing when you go out with a topic that has no consensus and create a debate that we don't really need," said the Foreign Minister before his departure on a four-day trip to the Middle East, which will take him to Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon.

"Not an issue" for Germans, Swedes and Czechs
Macron's comments were also met with cross-party rejection in Germany. According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, there was agreement at the Paris Ukraine conference "that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European states or NATO countries". During a visit to his Austrian counterpart Klaudia Tanner in Vienna, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius declared that "'boots on the ground' are not an option for the Federal Republic of Germany". Tanner spoke of a "worrying signal" from France

The Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic and Sweden, Petr Fiala and Ulf Kristersson, also rejected Macron's statements regarding ground troops. According to Fiala, the Czech Republic is not considering sending soldiers to Ukraine. For Sweden, too, sending Western soldiers to Ukraine is currently "not an issue", said Kristersson. We are currently "busy sending advanced equipment to Ukraine". There is no request from the Ukrainian side for ground troops, Kristersson added.

A statement from Moscow was also not long in coming. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, sending troops to Ukraine would "not be in the interests" of Western states. They would have to "be aware of this". The fact that this possibility is now being discussed is a "very important new element" in the conflict, Peskov emphasized on Tuesday.