Military expert Walter Feichtinger calls combat missions “completely unrealistic” at this point. Analyst Gressel criticizes that Macron's statement only leads to uncertainty.
Austrian military experts are wary of French President Emmanuel Macron's statements that he will not rule out sending Western ground troops to Ukraine. For security expert Walter Feichtinger, it is just “food for thought”. Combat operations at this point are “not on the horizon and completely unrealistic,” Feichtinger told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) on Tuesday.
Austrian military analyst Gustav Gressel was even more critical of Macron's move. “I don’t know what’s useful about that.” The statement only leads to public uncertainty. The deployment of ground troops from individual EU countries “is neither planned nor under discussion, nor do the Ukrainians demand it”. Military expert Franz-Stefan Gady also expressed reservations about the French statements. When questioned by APA, Gady said he did not know exactly what the president meant.
Wide range of possible uses
Feichtinger saw Macron's words as a “very general statement” to “keep all options open”. Individual NATO states could “each consider the aforementioned measure” under bilateral security agreements with Ukraine. In any case, sending soldiers would be out of the question for neutral Austria.
Macron did not say when and under what conditions troops could actually be sent to Ukraine. The “worst case” is combat operations. However, the range of possible applications also includes support in the areas of technology, logistics, management tasks and intelligence services. “In practice, this is certainly already being done to some extent. You can assume that, especially in the area of reconnaissance.”
The timing is also “very crucial,” Feichtinger added. Now the war is “in a hot phase”, “where probably all European states are very, very reserved and, from my perspective, an operation seems unrealistic”. .” At this stage, sending soldiers from European countries “could not be insignificant to support Ukraine in building an active defense”.
“Ambitious food for thought in terms of security policy”
Feichtinger also sees Macron's “ambitious food for thought in terms of security policy” as a triple sign. It's about putting Russia in the window and saying: this is also possible. But it is also a signal to Ukraine and European states to “become aware of this and do more for Ukraine”. However, Russia would “certainly explore” an official deployment of European ground troops for propaganda purposes – as confirmation of the Kremlin narrative that the West is fighting Russia.
However, Gressel considers Macron's words less appropriate as a signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The problem is that the signals also have to be credible for them to have any effect.” That's not the statement. “The Kremlin stopped listening to our speeches for a long time. The only thing that counts is what is done.”
The expert from the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Berlin added that he could only speculate on what background considerations Macron had: whether Macron “just wanted to irritate” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz or make it clear that the Europeans’ commitment was “open.” . -it ended.” to be.
“Miles” away from negotiations
In the event of a ceasefire, an international presence in Ukraine could be discussed in order to prevent Russia from rearming again, as it did after the Minsk peace talks, and then escalating again. At the moment, however, we are “miles away from negotiating anything,” Gressel explained. “The war is years away from ending. In that sense, discussing something like this in public actually only leads to uncertainty.” It is “strange” for him why Macron is “making such statements now”.
Gressel sees a mobilization problem, “but Ukraine has to solve it alone.” The expert referred to the internal political debate about mobilization. There are discussions in Ukraine about the extent to which the country can economically take people out of work and increase payments to volunteers. On the other hand, there is also the question of who will be called up, that is, whether family men or very young adults should also come to the front.
“The West is currently behind in supplying Ukraine with ammunition and producing the weapons that Ukraine needs. “We can basically supply Ukraine with anything except the Ukrainians themselves,” Gressel said, pointing out that in Ukraine it was a fight between the Ukrainians and the Russian aggressor. The expert estimated that the number of seriously injured soldiers is “three times greater than the number of deaths”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently estimated the death toll in the Ukrainian military since the start of the Russian war of aggression more than two years ago at 31,000 soldiers. (APA)