Zelensky Responds to Possibility of NATO Troops in Ukraine

There is no need for French troops to join Ukraine's war effort against Russia while Kyiv holds the frontlines, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, after weeks of tentative speculation over whether alliance boots on the ground will be necessary to stem Russian advances.

"As long as Ukraine holds, the French army can remain on French territory," the Ukrainian leader told French broadcaster BFM TV on Monday.

NATO nations have provided tens of billions of dollars' worth of military aid to Ukraine since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. But the alliance, and its individual member states, have been clear that NATO is not waging a direct war with Russia.

Under Article 5 of the alliance's treaty, an attack on one member of NATO is considered an attack on all. Ukraine is not a member of the alliance.

In late February, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested it was not possible to rule out the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine to support Kyiv's grinding war effort. Kyiv's Western backers have long balked at the idea, and the potential widening of the war outside Ukraine's borders. Russia has said that NATO sending combat troops would escalate the war and risk the conflict turning nuclear.

"There is no consensus at this stage" about putting Western boots on the ground, Macron said. French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu then said the comments referred to NATO troops engaged in mine clearance or training of Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian soil.

NATO personnel have helped train Ukrainian troops on Western-supplied equipment.

"If we could agree with the allies that, for example, instead of training Ukrainian soldiers on the territory of NATO member states and transporting thousands of troops to, say, Poland or the Czech Republic, it would make much more sense to transport a few dozen instructors to Ukrainian territory and train Ukrainian soldiers there," Czech President Petr Pavel said on Monday in remarks reported by European news website, Euractiv.

"From the point of view of international law and the U.N. Charter, there would be nothing to prevent NATO member states' troops—as well as civilians, for example—from assisting in the work in Ukraine," he added.

It "is not unthinkable" to put NATO boots on the ground, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said earlier this week.

Other major NATO players have attempted to play down the idea. "There will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO states," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, following Macron's remarks.

"Boots on the ground is not an option for Germany," added German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

Leaked audio recordings of a call between top German air officials, published by a top Russian state media figure earlier this month, suggested the U.K. had troops "on the ground" in Ukraine to assist with the firing of long-range British cruise missiles.

Poland's Sikorski said during a press conference earlier this month that "NATO soldiers are already present in Ukraine," adding he would "like to thank the ambassadors of those countries who have taken that risk."

"These countries know who they are, but I can't disclose them," he said.

The discussions swirl at a time when an exhausted Ukrainian force is in need of new recruits, now well into the third year of all-out war against a far more numerous Russian force. With new military aid from Ukraine's largest backer, the U.S., tied up in Congress for months, attention is increasing turning to what European NATO states can provide to Kyiv as it attempts to fend off multiple, simultaneous Russian offensives.