The possibility of the Ukraine conflict escalating into World War III cannot be ruled out, former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls claimed on Thursday in an interview with the Europe-1 news channel.
According to Valls, the fate of the French people and others across Europe is “closely tied” to the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, meaning they should “act much more decisively” to support Ukraine, including militarily.
“We cannot accept the hypothesis of a victory for Vladimir Putin which would represent the end of Ukrainian democracy and the strategic, military, political, and moral defeat of Europe,” Valls stated.
“Defeating Russia is essential, and for that, we must act much more strongly and quickly, and not forbid anything,” he added, apparently referring to French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent comments that sending NATO troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out.
Following Macron’s remarks earlier this week, a range of countries – including Poland, Germany, the US, Italy, the UK, and other NATO members – rejected the idea that they could deploy forces to Ukraine. The chief of the US-led bloc, Jens Stoltenberg, has also dismissed such a scenario.
Meanwhile, a public survey conducted by the French newspaper Le Figaro on Thursday also revealed that over two-thirds of French citizens disapproved of Macron’s comments on a possible NATO deployment to Ukraine.
Nevertheless, Macron has doubled down on his remarks, insisting that they were “weighed, thought-through, and measured.” So far, only two other NATO members, Estonia and Lithuania, have supported the French president, suggesting that sending troops to Ukraine should not be excluded.
Moscow has condemned Macron’s statements, warning that the deployment of NATO forces to Ukraine would “inevitably” lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and the US-led alliance.