• French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Ukraine war with The Economist.

• He said France could send troops if requested by Ukraine in response to a Russian breakthrough.

• His remarks about French soldiers defending Ukraine are among the most hawkish by a Western leader.

French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that he'd consider sending French troops to Ukraine and spelled out the conditions in which this could place.

Speaking to The Economist, Macron described the urgent threat that Russian President Vladimir Putin posed to Europe in the wake of the 2022 Ukraine invasion.

"I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," Macron said when asked about his earlier comments that NATO troops could be deployed to help defend Ukraine.

"We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor," he continued.

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He said he'd consider sending French troops to Ukraine "if the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request, which is not the case today."

He added that if Russia defeated Ukraine, it would then probably seek to attack another European country.

In recent months, political and military leaders have been issuing increasingly stark warnings about the possible consequences of a Russian victory in Ukraine.

Macron's remarks about sending French troops to defend Ukraine are among the most hawkish by a Western leader.

Ukraine has struggled to prevent Russia from breaking through its defensive lines amid a US aid block. And though the $61 billion aid bill was recently passed, Ukraine is still fighting to hold back intensifying Russian attacks.

While NATO countries have sent money and weapons to help Ukraine, they've avoided a direct confrontation amid fears it could escalate the conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.

Under Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty, members are pledged to defend each other if attacked.

In response to Macron's earlier remarks, the Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said deploying NATO troops to Ukraine would lead to war between Russia and the alliance.

"We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability," Peskov said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Analysts recently discussed with Business Insider the likelihood of Russia attacking NATO, with the Russian-military expert Ruth Deyermond saying Putin's regime was too weak militarily to risk a direct confrontation with NATO.

In the interview with The Economist, Macron said he was determined to prevent a Russian victory.

"We mustn't rule anything out," he said, "because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine."

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The Kremlin brands comments on Ukraine by France's Macron and Britain's Cameron as 'dangerous'

Visitors look at a Marder armored infantry vehicle from Germany at an exhibition of Western military equipment captured from Kyiv forces during the fighting in Ukraine, in Moscow on Friday, May 3, 2024. The exhibit organized by the Russian Defense Ministry features more than 30 pieces of Western-made heavy equipment, including a U.S.-made M1 Abrams tank and a Bradley armored fighting vehicle. 

Recent statements by France’s president and Britain’s foreign secretary about the war in Ukraine are “dangerous” and will deepen international tension around the conflict, the Kremlin’s spokesman said Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview published Thursday, repeated an earlier comment that he doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, meanwhile, said during a visit to Kyiv the same day that Ukraine will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia — a possibility that some other NATO countries providing weapons have balked at.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded Macron’s comment “a very important and very dangerous statement.” Remarks by Macron about possible direct French engagement in the conflict represent a “very dangerous trend,” he said.

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Cameron’s statement about Ukraine’s right to use British weapons provided to strike facilities inside Russia is “another very dangerous statement,” Peskov told reporters.

“This is a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which potentially may threaten European security, the entire European security architecture,” Peskov said.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 significantly heightened tension between the Kremlin and NATO countries. The alliance countries have provided much of the military hardware that Kyiv is using to fight Russia, ensuring that the tension has continued to simmer. Russia, in turn, has sought help from China, Iran and North Korea, according to the U.S..

As Russia heaps battlefield pressure on depleted Ukrainian forces and appears poised to launch a major offensive, that antagonism has become sharper.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed Friday that Russian troops had captured more than 500 square kilometers (200 square miles) of territory from Ukrainian forces since the start of the year.

“The Russian groups of forces continue to break through the enemy’s strongholds along the entire line of contact,” Shoigu said at a meeting with top military brass.

It was not possible to independently verify claims about the battlefield.

Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that Russian forces have an overwhelming advantage in troops, weapons and ammunition.

Ukraine’s president and foreign minister pressed Cameron during his visit to accelerate the delivery of his country's promised military aid.

“It is important that the weapons included in the U.K. support package announced last week arrive as soon as possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the social platform X.

He said armored vehicles, ammunition and missiles of various types were top of the list.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who also met with Cameron, said on X that the focus was on “speeding up military aid.”

That message was rammed home by the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, who said Russia is trying to exploit its current advantage in weapons and manpower and is planning a major offensive this summer.

“Our problem is very simple: We have no weapons,” Skibitsky was quoted as saying in an interview with The Economist published Friday.

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Vital support pledged by Western allies to help Ukraine fend off the Kremlin’s forces has been delayed by political disagreements in the United States and a lack of manufacturing capacity in Europe. That has opened a door to advances for the bigger and better-equipped Russian army, especially along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against the clock to deploy the new military aid, especially a fresh batch of U.S. support, in coming weeks and prevent Russia taking more ground.

The pressing concern at the moment is keeping the strategic eastern hilltop city of Chasiv Yar out of Russian hands. Capturing the city would offer Russia the opportunity of attacking other key cities deeper inside the Donetsk region and hitting important Ukrainian supply lines.

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Chasiv Yar is being battered by Russian artillery, drones and missiles. Glide bombs have also been deployed. They are half-ton bombs fitted with wings and launched from aircraft from behind Russian lines. They demolish buildings and leave huge craters, unnerving local defenders.

Russia used a similar strategy of relentless bombardment to force Ukrainian troops out of Avdiivka in February.