Poland and Baltic states may send troops to Ukraine if Russia succeeds — Spiegel

The Baltic states and Poland do not rule out sending their troops to Ukraine if the Russian Federation succeeds on the battlefield.

This is reported by the German media outlet Der Spiegel, Rubryka reports.

According to Spiegel, on the sidelines of the Lennart Meri Conference on foreign policy and security policy held in the capital of Estonia last week, parliamentarians of the Baltic states warned representatives of the German government about the consequences of Berlin's policy regarding the war in Ukraine.

In particular, it refers to the refusal to provide the Ukrainian army with long-range weapons and the prohibition to strike the territory of the Russian Federation with Western weapons.

"Their argument is as follows: if the Russians manage to make a strategic breakthrough in the east of Ukraine because the West is only half helping Kyiv, the situation may escalate sharply. In this case, the Baltic states and Poland will not wait for the deployment of Russian troops on their borders, Baltic politicians warned — they will send troops to Ukraine themselves. And it was clear what this would mean: NATO would become a party to the war," Spiegel noted.

As Spiegel explains, this is exactly the scenario German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden fear.

"Those who want to limit war through excessive restraint actually risk getting it out of control," Spiegel sums up.

It will be recalled that Madis Roll, the adviser to the Estonian president on national security matters, said that the Estonian government is considering the possibility of sending troops to the West of Ukraine to take over the rear functions of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas emphasized that NATO member states should not fear sending troops to Ukraine. This will not involve the Alliance in a war against the Russian Federation.

Macron's initiative to send troops to Ukraine

Earlier, French leader Emmanuel Macron announced the possibility of introducing troops into Ukraine's territory, which caused a debate among Ukraine's allies.

Later, France clarified that it was not about sending troops directly to participate in hostilities. Some NATO countries, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Canada, have said they are ready to consider such a possibility.

Despite this, several other NATO member states have already made statements that they are not considering sending their troops to Ukraine. This was said in the US, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

Recently, on May 2, Macron again stated that he does not rule out sending troops to Ukraine since his main strategic goal is that Russia cannot win.

It is worth adding that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, noted that Western countries can send their military instructors to Ukraine for training. This could be the first step in Macron's initiative.

By the way, Zelensky also proposed deploying NATO instructors in Ukraine. He explained that this could speed up the training of the Ukrainian military since they would not have to be sent to Poland, Germany, or Britain.