French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday that his country will host the chiefs of staff of countries ready to guarantee future peace in Ukraine next week.
In a televised address, Macron emphasized that the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, has evolved into a broader security crisis that directly affects Europe.
He accused Russia of attempting to “test our limits” through cyberattacks, election interference, and military aggression, stressing that France and its allies can “no longer take Russia at its word.”
“Russia has become, as I speak to you and for years to come, a threat to France and to Europe,” he said.
He said that Moscow “has already made the Ukraine conflict a global conflict,” accusing it of violating “our borders to assassinate opponents, manipulates elections in Romania and Moldova.”
Macron also accused Russia of organizing “digital attacks against our hospitals” and trying to “manipulate our opinions with lies spread on social networks.”
He reaffirmed France’s support for Ukraine, stating that any peace agreement must not come at the expense of Ukrainian sovereignty.
Peace in Ukraine “will also perhaps involve the deployment of European forces. They would not go to fight today, they would not go to fight on the front line, but they would be there, on the contrary, once peace is signed, to guarantee its full respect,” he said.
This would include maintaining long-term military support for Ukraine, Macron added, in the form of a “solid, lasting, and verifiable peace” plan, in coordination with European partners and Ukraine itself.
He announced that a “strategic debate” has been started on nuclear deterrence to protect European allies.
“The strategic debate on how our (nuclear) deterrence contributes to the protection of our European allies has been reopened,” Macron said.
The French president also urged European nations to bolster their defense capabilities and warned that “a new era” of global instability has begun.
Source: AA