"I'll have to send some guys to Odessa"
According to Le Monde, during a meeting last June with ministers and military personnel, the French president had already mentioned sending troops to Ukraine.
On June 12, Emmanuel Macron spoke at a defense council in the Jupiter PC surrounded by several ministers, and it was at that moment that Emmanuel Macron mentioned the possibility of "boots on the ground"; soldiers on Ukrainian soil.
Questioned by Le Monde, the chief of staff of the army present at the meeting explained "the role of the military is always to prepare the maximum possible options in order to help the political-military decision of the President of the Republic".
On the evening of February 21st, in a small group, President Macron said:
"In the coming year, I'll have to send guys to Odessa," a sentence that revived the idea of sending ground troops to Ukraine.
A sentence that also takes on its full meaning today, as French President, Emmanuel Macron, has just declared "that he's not ruling anything out" and that Paris is considering taking the lead of a European military coalition in Ukraine.
(MH with FM/Source: Le Monde/Photo: Jacques Paquier via Wikicommons under license CC BY 2.0)