UPDATE - NATO, EU countries won’t send ground troops to Ukraine: German chancellor

UPDATES WITH MORE QUOTES, ADDS DETAILS, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that Western countries will not send any ground troops to Ukraine, turning down French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent suggestion.

“What was agreed with each other from the beginning also applies to the future, namely that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil that will be sent there by European states, or NATO states,” Scholz told reporters during a visit to the southwestern city of Freiburg.

"And also the soldiers, who are active in our countries, will not take an active part in the war,” he stressed, reaffirming his long-held position that the Western allies should refrain from any steps that could lead to a direct conflict between NATO and Russia.

Scholz’s comments came only a day after Macron had suggested sending Western ground troops to Ukraine to support Ukrainians in defending their country against Russia.

"There is no consensus today that ground troops should be deployed in an official way, ... but nothing should be ruled out," Macron told a news conference in Paris, after hosting Western leaders for a conference to discuss military support to Ukraine.

"We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said.

Germany is currently the second-largest supplier of weapons to Ukraine after the US. Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Germany has sent weapons worth €17.13 billion (approximately $18.61 billion), including howitzers, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and air defense systems.

But Chancellor Scholz has rejected Ukraine’s request for the delivery of powerful long-range Taurus missiles, due to concerns that they can be used to attack targets in Russia, potentially drawing Germany into the war.

On Monday, Scholz told local media that delivering German-made Taurus missiles to Ukraine would necessitate assigning German soldiers for this mission or deploying them in Ukraine.

“German soldiers should not be linked in any way with the potential targets of this system, at any point, or at any place,” he said.