This is not the first time that President Macron has provided surprises on security issues, be it his 2019 comments about NATO being "brain dead," or a June 2022 statement cautioning against humiliating Russia. However, his stance as reported late last month that "nothing should be ruled out" in support of Ukraine, even the potential deployment of Western troops, prompted a sharp response.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for instance said: ""We will not send European soldiers to Ukraine. We don't want a war between Russia and NATO. And we will do all we can to prevent it."

US national security spokesman John Kirby said "The president has been clear, there's not going to be US troops on the ground in Ukraine."

Chief of Defense of the Netherlands Onno Eichelsheim meanwhile said: "It is too early to do that now. But as I said, from Macron's point of view, all options must be kept on the table. And this option is very far away," said

I think what President Macron wants to show is that we have to have all the options on the table. And this is a 'far' option."

Ambassador Mignot told "Välissilm": "I think he really said that on purpose. To create, to show that we have resolve and determination, and we are not afraid of going further in supporting Ukraine. There were many issues in that Paris meeting; in particular, I think there is an assessment that Russia is becoming more and more aggressive. This is clear in France, where we see disinformation campaigns orchestrated by Russia. We see also Russia being more aggressive and creating chaos in Africa and the Middle East."

A Czech initiative to purchase artillery shells from outside the EU was also approved in principle at the Paris meeting, and Germany has indicated that it is prepared to bear a large proportion of the costs.

France has not disclosed what it plans to do beyond agreeing to the missile purchase, and it is too early to say anything concrete about deploying any troops.

"As President Macron has said, this issue is not off the table, so it will probably be discussed in the coming weeks. That's an option. I think it's not up to me to decide, but up to President Macron; we will see who is willing to go and where, and then there will probably be some decisions ahead," the ambassador continued.

According to the French ambassador, the attitude of Paris towards Russia has changed significantly, and this is also reflected in its support for Ukraine.

"In France, we have tripled the production of ammunition for Ukraine. We have increased our training capacity. We are training more specialists, so we are doing more and more. But it takes time, I think to adapt the industry to produce more capacity …to produce Cesar guns, I think this has now decreased from 30 months to 15 months; we are delivering cruise missiles, and President Macron announced a new batch of cruise missiles and bombs to be delivered to Ukraine."

France is the second largest economy in the EU after Germany, and has provided a total of €3.8 billion to Ukraine in the two years since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, and this year pledged a further €3 billion.

Germany, which in the early phases of the war endured sharp criticism about it stance, has nonetheless gone on to provide aid to Ukraine worth €17 billion so far.

On this, Ambassador Mignot said: "We are doing a lot, and we are not telling everything about what we are doing, that's why we are in international reports, we might be a little below."

A 10-year bilateral security agreement inked in mid-February is also highly significant, the ambassador said.

"The message behind is to try to send a signal that we will support Ukraine in the long term. So we don't accept any idea of a frozen conflict, because we saw what it produced after the Crimean War in 2014," Ambassador Mignot continued, referring to the insurgency war that began in the Donbas region of Ukraine in that year, the same year that the Russian Federation annexed Crimea.

While Chancellor Scholz has by his statements taken a more cautious stance on military aid to Ukraine, including in the form of Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles, his foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, on Monday appeared to diverge from that line in calling on the German government to "intensively consider" potential deliveries of Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

The German chancellor, however, later reiterated his opposition to sending the missiles and made clear that the ultimate decision on that was his alone.

As if to underscore that this decision may be more than hypothetical, Russian state media channel RT "leaked" an intercepted recording involving high-ranking German military officers, who were discussing how Taurus long-range cruise missiles might be deployed by Kyiv against Russian forces.

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