Europe's Defense Official Says 'There Are Western Special Forces in Ukraine' - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Remarks of French President Emmanuel Macron on a possible deployment of Western troops to Ukraine were aimed at creating deterrence and ambiguity toward Russia, and "everyone knows" that Western special forces are in Ukraine, an unnamed senior European defense official told Financial Times on Tuesday.

"Everyone knows there are western special forces in Ukraine — they’ve just not acknowledged it officially," the official said.

After a Paris-hosted conference on Ukraine on Monday, Macron said Western leaders had discussed the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine and had neither reached a consensus on the matter nor ruled out the possibility. Several NATO countries, including Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and Hungary, have since distanced themselves from Macron’s comment, emphasizing that they have no intention of deploying troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow had taken notice of the French president's remarks and was well aware of his position regarding the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, adding that some countries that participated in a meeting held in Paris on Ukraine held a quite "wise assessment of potential dangers" of being involved in the conflict.

In addition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that discussions of the possibility of sending military personnel to Ukraine were due to the absence of any visible results in increasing assistance in the form of supplies of ammunition and weapons to Kiev.

Western countries, including member states of the European Union, have been providing military and financial aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin has consistently warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev, saying it would lead to further escalation of the conflict.