Macron troop comments anger Russia.

Putin allies liken him to Napoleon.

Moscow portrays Macron as reckless.

Notes other Western countries baulked.

Allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned French President Emmanuel Macron that any troops he sends to Ukraine would meet the same end as Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armee whose 1812 invasion of Russia ended in death and defeat.

Macron opened the door on Monday to European nations sending troops to Ukraine, although he cautioned that there was no consensus at this stage.

His comments prompted a slew of other Western countries, including the United States and Britain, to say they had no such plans, while the Kremlin warned that conflict between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would be inevitable if European members of NATO sent troops to fight in Ukraine.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament and a close Putin ally, said Macron appeared to see himself as Napoleon and warned him against following in the footsteps of the French emperor.

"To maintain his personal power, Macron could not think of anything better than to ignite a third world war. His initiatives are becoming dangerous for the citizens of France," Volodin said on his official social media feed.

"Before making such statements, it would be right for Macron to remember how it ended for Napoleon and his soldiers, more than 600,000 of whom were left lying in the damp earth."

Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia made rapid progress initially and captured Moscow. But Russian tactics forced his Grande Armee into a long retreat and hundreds of thousands of his men died as a result of disease, starvation and cold.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Putin, who controls the world's largest nuclear arsenal, has warned of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.

Macron's statement was welcomed by some outside Russia however, particularly in eastern Europe.

But former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, suggested Macron had dangerous delusions of grandeur and said his statement was an example of how flawed Western political thinking had become.

"The petty and tragic heirs of Bonaparte, trying on the golden epaulettes torn off 200 years ago, are eager for revenge with Napoleonic magnitude and are spouting fierce and extremely dangerous nonsense," he said.

Medvedev, once seen as a modernising reformer, has reinvented himself since the start of the Ukraine war as an arch-hawk. He has issued a series of belligerent statements, assailing the West and warning of the risk of a nuclear apocalypse if certain red lines are crossed.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Macron's statement had revealed that other Western countries, unlike Macron, understood the risks of a direct clash between NATO troops and Russia.

"The leaders of many European governments quickly said that they were not and are not planning anything of the kind," she said.

"This shows they understand the danger."

Germany and Poland say they're not sending troops to Ukraine as the Kremlin warns of a wider war

European military heavyweights Germany and Poland affirmed Tuesday that they would not be sending troops to Ukraine, after reports that some Western countries may be considering doing so as the war with Russia enters its third year.

The head of NATO also said the U.S.-led military alliance has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, after other central European leaders confirmed that they too would not be providing soldiers.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, warned that a direct conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable if the alliance sends combat troops. “In this case, we need to talk not about probability, but about the inevitability (of conflict),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Moscow's warning came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron said that sending in Western ground troops should not be “ruled out” in the future, after hosting a conference of top officials from more than 20 of Ukraine's Western backers.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeared to have a different view of what happened in Paris. He said the participants had agreed “that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil who are sent there by European states or NATO states.”

Scholz said there was also consensus “that soldiers operating in our countries also are not participating actively in the war themselves.”

With Macron increasingly looking isolated and opposition politicians in France furiously critical of his suggestion that ground troops might be considered, the French president's government subsequently sought Tuesday to clarify his comments.

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said there had been discussions but no consensus at the conference about carrying out de-mining and military training operations in Ukraine, away from the front lines.

“It's not sending troops to wage war against Russia,” the minister said.

The idea of sending troops has been taboo, particularly as NATO seeks to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. Nothing prevents NATO members from joining such an undertaking individually or in groups, but the organization itself would only get involved if all 31 members agree.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press that “NATO allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We have done that since 2014 and stepped up after the full-scale invasion. But there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”

At a meeting in Prague on Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, “Poland does not plan to send its troops to Ukraine.” Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic insisted that his country “certainly doesn’t want to send its soldiers.”

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has said his government is not planning to propose a deployment, but that some countries were weighing whether to strike bilateral deals to provide troops to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion.

Fico did not provide details about which countries or what the troops would do in Ukraine. Macron, too, avoided naming any countries, saying he wanted to maintain “strategic ambiguity” and not tip the West's hand to Russia.

NATO as an alliance provides Ukraine only non-lethal aid and support like medical supplies, uniforms and winter equipment, but some members send weapons and ammunition of their own accord, bilaterally or in groups.

A decision to send troops and keep them deployed long term would require the kind of transport and logistics capabilities that only countries like the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and possibly Italy, Poland or Spain could muster.

While ruling out NATO military action, Stoltenberg told the AP “that this is a war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine, blatantly violating international law. According to international law, Ukraine of course has the right to self-defense, and we have the right to support them in upholding that right.”

The conference in Paris was held just after France, Germany and the U.K. each signed 10-year bilateral security agreements with Ukraine as its government works to shore up Western support.

European nations are worried the U.S. will reduce its support, as aid for Ukraine is held up in Congress. They also have concerns that former President Donald Trump might return to the White House and change the course of U.S. policy on the continent.

Several European countries, including France, expressed support Monday for an initiative launched by the Czech Republic to buy ammunition shells for Ukraine outside the European Union, participants at the meeting said. Macron said a new coalition will be launched to deliver medium- and long-range missiles.

In an interview last week, Stoltenberg did not oppose the idea of allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike targets in Russia. Some countries have placed restrictions on the use of materiel they provide, asking that it be used only inside Ukraine.

“It’s for each and every ally to decide whether there are some caveats on what they deliver," Stoltenberg told Radio Free Europe. But, he said, Ukraine's right to self-defense “includes also striking legitimate military targets, Russian military targets, outside Ukraine.”

Kremlin warns of inevitable war with NATO over possible troop deployment in Ukraine

Dmitry Peskov

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian president, stated that the presence of NATO troops on the territory of Ukraine would lead to a direct conflict between the Alliance and the Russian Federation, escalating the situation.

Quote: "In this case, we should not talk about the probability but about the inevitability [of a direct war with NATO – ed.]. That's how we assess it," said Peskov to journalists, responding to questions about the risks of escalation and direct conflict with NATO in the event of the Alliance's military presence on the territory of Ukraine.

Peskov noted that the discussion by Western countries about the possibility of sending their military to Ukraine is a new element.

"We have paid attention to the fact that the issue of sending the military to Ukraine has indeed been discussed, and we have also noted that there is a very rich spectrum of opinions on this matter; there is really no consensus," said Peskov.

He also stated that Moscow knows President Macron's position on "the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia."

Background:

• French President Emmanuel Macron has not ruled out the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine in the future after a meeting in Paris on Monday, emphasising that there is currently no consensus among allies.

• Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Kyiv's allies have not reached an agreement to send troops to Ukraine, as French President Emmanuel Macron had previously suggested.

• After Macron's statement, Czechia, Poland, and Sweden stated that they are not considering the idea of sending their troops to Ukraine.