Robles rejects sending troops to Ukraine after Macron's insinuations: "It could cause an escalation in the conflict"

The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, rejected this Tuesday the sending of military forces to Ukraine that was suggested by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, pointing out that this participation could cause “an escalation in the conflict” with Russia and is not supported by NATO either.

At an event in Barcelona, the minister predicted that “Ukraine will win the war because it is right”. “We cannot accept autocratic dictators like Putin,” he stressed.

“I cannot hide that I have enormous concern about the situation in Ukraine, I believe that we cannot at any time stop helping the population,” said Robles.

In statements to journalists, Robles insisted that we must continue supporting Ukraine and, asked about the possible sending of troops proposed by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, she replied: “It is a position rejected by NATO, therefore we don't share it. “We believe there are many ways to support Ukraine but, as NATO said at this time, participation in Ukraine would be an escalation in the conflict.”

During the event, Robles insisted that the situation in Ukraine is serious and assessed that despite all the war technology that exists “it is being a war like the First World War, a trench war, of hand-to-hand combat.”. Furthermore, he added that in this proximity combat “the civilian population is being attacked, children and the elderly are being targeted in war without any regard on the part of Russia.”

An aid package

In this sense, the United States stressed this Tuesday that it will not send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia and estimated that the best way to support that country is for the House of Representatives to approve the additional aid package for kyiv. “President Biden has made it very clear that the United States will not send troops to fight in Ukraine,” said Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.

“We believe that Ukraine's path to victory is for the House of Representatives to approve the additional national security package so that Ukrainian troops have the weapons and ammunition they need to defend themselves and continue to fight bravely for their freedom and independence,” added the spokesman.

Aid to Ukraine is stuck in the US Congress as the leader of the Lower House, Republican Mike Johnson, refuses to put it to a vote. That bill, valued at $95 billion and which includes aid for Israel and Taiwan, was already approved by the Senate this month with the support of the Democrats, who have the majority in that chamber, and about twenty Republicans, including its leader, Mitch McConnell.

Conservatives have for months conditioned aid to Ukraine on the approval of a bill to reinforce the border with Mexico and weaken the asylum system, but when a bipartisan group of senators presented one for that purpose they refused to validate it.

The French president assured this Monday at the end of a summit on Ukraine with more than 20 European leaders that the sending of ground forces to Ukraine should not be excluded and recalled that in the past other red lines have already been crossed due to the persistence of the conflict.. However, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and NATO, as well as Washington and Ottawa, among other members of the international community, have turned their backs on his words, which have also earned Macron harsh internal criticism in France.