A Russian state TV host has expressed alarm over French President Emmanuel Macron doubling down on the possibility of sending ground troops into Ukraine.
"I don't know; this isn't funny anymore. Please do something!" Ekaterina Shugaeva said during a state TV broadcast.
Macron has said there are "no limits" to Paris' support for Kyiv. In late February, he suggested that NATO members could send ground troops to Ukraine, and the leader doubled on that statement last week, saying that "we cannot exclude options" because "the security of Europe and the security of the French people is at stake here."
"The jets are flying [over Ukraine], the HIMARS are flying," said Shugaeva. "Do you understand that [Macron's] lost it, he's going to send in the troops [to Ukraine].
"And your sons will be getting killed. The enemy is strong, it's not decadent, I want us to take Macron seriously," she added.
Newsweek reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.
In an interview on French national television TF1 and France 2 on March 14, Macron said that while Western troops aren't needed in Ukraine now, he wouldn't rule out sending ground troops to the war-torn country in the future.
"We're not in that situation today," Macron said, adding that "all these options are possible."
"Today, to have peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak," he said. "If war was to spread to Europe, it would be Russia's sole choice and sole responsibility. But for us to decide today to be weak, to decide today that we would not respond, is being defeated already. And I don't want that."
He added: "If Russia wins this war, Europe's credibility will be reduced to zero."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to Macron's remarks on March 15, telling reporters that it was "obvious that Russia is an adversary of France because France is already involved in the war in Ukraine; it is indirectly taking part in this war."
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned during his annual State of the Nation address in Moscow late last month, after Macron's suggestion, that his "strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness."
"Russia won't let anyone interfere in its internal affairs," he warned.
Macron said during his television interview that Putin making nuclear threats was "not appropriate."
The United States and Germany have resisted Macron's suggestion that NATO members could send ground troops to Ukraine. President Joe Biden has "made it clear that we will not put U.S. boots on the ground," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said last week.
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Update 03/20/24, 15.10p.m. ET: This article was updated with a change to the spelling of Ekaterina Shugaeva.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
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