France destroys Putin's 'red lines' - analyst of National Institute for Strategic Studies

Oleksiy Yizhak, an analyst at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, said this on Espreso TV.

"Perhaps France has a political consideration. The industrial element is important, in that unlike American missiles, French missiles can be used against targets in Russia, at least against legitimate targets such as Iranian missiles. This is political leadership. This is the biggest blurring to date of the 'red lines' that Putin created in February 2022. The French, politically, this is just a colossal blurring, even destruction of these 'red lines', it is very important," he said.

Talking about NATO troops in Ukraine is actually the beginning of practical negotiations on the terms of Ukraine's membership in NATO, says Yizhak.

"France has taken political leadership to bring Europe together for certain purposes. France would like to unite European resources in its vision. What Macron said is natural. It is definitely not about NATO troops fighting instead of our troops. It is not about replacing the law on mobilization and everything related to it. Rather, it is about the agreements that Ukraine is currently concluding with Europe on the automatic response of our partners in case of danger to Ukraine," he said.

In his words, we are talking about such forms of presence that will make the reactions of NATO countries automatic.

"This is not only a military presence, but also industrial, financian, and political. At the same time, the military presence can be different: special forces, consultants, advisors, crews that maintain equipment, engineering units. Not only is it possible, it already exists. Now the question is which countries are ready to increase such presence and take on additional obligations to automatically respond in case of danger, threats to Ukraine," added the analyst of the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the leaders of the Alliance stated that no general decision had been made to send troops to Ukraine, and Russia called the move a declaration of war.
• On February 29, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that Western leaders should not rule out the possibility of sending ground troops to Ukraine.