French president doubles down on 'clear' remarks about sending troops to Ukraine

ANKARA

France's president on Tuesday doubled down on "clear" remarks he recently made on the possibility of deploying troops in Ukraine.

"I called for a strategic jolt that I fully take on," Emmanuel Macron told a joint news conference with his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel in Prague.

"I am convinced that the admitted clarity of those remarks was what Europe needed," he said, answering a question about his recent statement on sending troops to Ukraine, which has been embroiled in a war with Russia for over two years.

He reiterated that there was no consensus on sending Western troops to Ukraine and urged other countries to realize that war is back in Europe.

"There is no consensus today that ground troops should be deployed in an official, accepted, and endorsed way. But nothing should be ruled out in the dynamic," Macron said at a news conference last week in Paris.

In Prague, he said denoting Europe's limits to someone "who does not have any," leads to a "spirit of defeat."

However, he also stressed that France does not seek escalation and has never been interested in belligerence on either side, while also vowing to support Ukraine as long as needed.

Czech President Pavel, for his part, mostly agreed with his French counterpart and said Europe must play a major role in assisting Kyiv.

He also stressed the need for new possibilities and solutions in Ukraine, "including the discussion of a possible presence in Ukraine in various forms."

Pavel later explained that this was not necessarily a reference to a "concrete form of presence," and added: "We must not limit ourselves."

"If Russia prevails in Ukraine, we will also be defeated, we must continue supporting Ukraine," he said.