Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has warned that French President Emmanuel Macron’s threat to send NATO troops to Ukraine risks sparking World War III.
In an interview with The Economist last week, Macron said the question of sending western troops to Ukraine would “legitimately” arise if Russia broke through the Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv made such a request.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted by describing Macron’s statements as “very dangerous.”
Now Hungarian diplomat Peter Szijjarto warns that the French leader’s comments represent a stunning escalation.
“If a NATO member commits ground troops, it will be a direct NATO-Russia confrontation and it will then be World War Three,” said Szijjarto.
He also drew attention to the fact that such a conflict would likely escalate into nuclear confrontation.
“Let’s be clear: if there is a nuclear war, everything and everyone will be lost. If there is a nuclear war, everyone will die and everything will be destroyed, which no one with any common sense can wish for,” said Szijjarto.
Meanwhile, senior Italian government officials have joined the growing number of prominent voices condemning Macron over his comments.
“Sending Italian soldiers to fight outside the EU borders? Follow the obsessions of some dangerous and desperate European leader like Macron? No thanks, never in the name of the League,” remarked Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto also told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, “I don’t judge a president of a friendly country like France, but I don’t understand the purpose and usefulness of these declarations, which objectively raise tensions.”
As we previously highlighted, the former commander of the UK’s Joint Forces Command General Sir Richard Barrons said Ukraine is at “serious risk” of having to admit defeat to Russia this year.
Barrons said that pessimism is starting to set in amongst the population, generating a general malaise and a feeling that Ukraine “can’t win.”
