NATO allies reacted with 'WTF' to France's offer to send troops to Ukraine, says American diplomat

France's Defense Staff appealed to NATO allies with a proposal to consider sending troops to Ukraine, former US Ambassador to the Alliance Ivo Daalder wrote 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 in Ukraine, the country's Chief of Defense Staff, Thierry Burkhard, wrote to half of his NATO colleagues with a proposal to consider such a possibility.

It provided for the equipping of defense systems, training of forces in the country, the start of cyber operations and the offer of assistance in demining.

"No military leader would send this kind of letter without clear backing from their country’s top political leadership. And every ally, I am told, reacted with a furious 'WTF?'" Daalder said.

The diplomat noted that all allies answered with an "emphatic no" because Macron was pursuing "a sneaky political end run".

Earlier, Macron said that "nothing should be ruled out" in the context of sending NATO ground troops to Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the Alliance has no intention of sending its troops to Ukraine.

The Czech Republic and Poland are not considering the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, said Prime Ministers Petr Fiala and Donald Tusk on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman said that their countries would not deploy troops to Ukraine.

Subsequently, Spain and Italy disagreed with France's proposal to send European ground troops to Ukraine. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in particular, considers this proposal to be "Macron's idea".