Posted originally on CTH on March 6, 2025 | Sundance

Previously French President Emmanuel Macron refused to commit to putting French troops together with U.K troops on the ground in Ukraine.  Politically in France, Macron is on the ropes.

Obviously, such a direct commitment of troops into Ukraine would put tenuously positioned Macron in an even worse position.  However, putting French technical support systems into place to replace the withdrawn U.S. targeting system just sounds better.

So, as the optics of French politics present, yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket – Macron goes that way.

Stepping into the spotlight Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday that Russia was “a threat for France and Europe”, that the Ukraine was already a “global conflict” and that he would open a debate about extending the French nuclear umbrella to allies in Europe.

Macron also said that he plans next week to hold a meeting of army chiefs from European countries willing to send troops to Ukraine after any eventual peace deal with Russia. Macron told the people of France that his nation needs to be ready if the United States is no longer by its side.

Russia Responds –MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian officials and lawmakers on Thursday poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron for saying that Russia threatened Europe and cautioned that such talk could lead the West towards the abyss of a new world war.

[…] the advance of Russian forces in Ukraine in 2024 and U.S. President Donald Trump’s upending of U.S. policy towards Ukraine and Russia and demand for a peace deal to end the war have triggered a crisis among European powers who fear the United States is turning its back on Europe.

“Such an erroneous analysis leads to fatal errors,” said Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian senator, who said Macron had mistaken Russia’s reaction to the enlargement and aggression of the U.S.-led military alliance towards Russia.

“Macron maniacally imposes on his citizens, allies and the entire world a completely false concept of what is happening – ‘the Russians are coming!’ Such false conclusions and false suggestions lead to the abyss.”

Russia and the United States are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers, with over 5,000 nuclear warheads each, followed by China with about 500 and then France with 290 and the United Kingdom with 225, according to the Federation of American Scientists. (more)

“One ping Vasilli“…  Keep in mind, President Trump has withdrawn “intelligence sharing,” the targeting systems used by the elements in control of Ukraine warfighting.  {GO DEEP} This move is essentially leaving Ukraine naked to the possibility of Russia taking advantage of this moment of strategic vulnerability.

However, 36 hours later and Russia is not attacking.

All of this is very interesting.

First, President Trump and President Putin have talked personally via phone.  Second, President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, spent over three-and-a-half hours in a face-to-face meeting with President Putin {Go Deep}.

• Witkoff discussed the intentions of President Trump with President Putin, following the phone call between Trump and Putin. • President Trump has paused the long-range “targeting systems” being used by Ukraine. • President Putin is not taking the opportunity to attack. • Putin is restraining himself.  “One ping only Vasilli“… can you see it?

Put those points all together and you see a picture of peace being discussed by Trump and Putin, and a potential ceasefire being opposed by Zelenskyy (Ukraine), Starmer (UK), Macron (FR) and the EU leadership.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly said, “for the past three years the U.S and Russia, two nuclear powers, have been in a proxy war.”  This is the U.S. Secretary of State saying this on television.

The EU nations are assembled in Brussels today to discuss how to finance a larger EU military.

The U.K is willing to support continued warfighting efforts in Ukraine.

France wants to keep supporting Ukraine warfighting efforts.

German leadership is now proposing changes to their constitution to enable them to spend and assemble a larger military.

It’s a little bit remarkable.  Germany is talking about assembling a larger military to support a move through NATO ally Poland putting German troops into Ukraine to fight Russians. 👀

Stop me when you realize this sounds a lot like EU history repeating.