France's General Staff has asked NATO allies to consider sending troops to Ukraine. Former US Ambassador to the Alliance Ivo Daalder wrote about this in a column for Politico.
According to him, a few weeks before French President Emmanuel Macron's statement about the possible deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine, the country's Chief of the General Staff, Thierry Burkhardt, wrote to half of his NATO colleagues with a proposal to consider such a possibility.
It included the acquisition of defense systems, training of forces in the country, the launch of cyber operations, and the offer of assistance in demining.
"No military commander would send such a letter without the explicit support of the top political leadership of his country. And every ally, I'm told, reacted with a fierce 'what the hell?'" Daalder said
The diplomat noted that all allies responded with a "strong no" because Macron was pursuing an "insidious political goal."
Earlier, Macron said that "nothing should be ruled out" in the context of sending NATO ground troops to Ukraine.
