Macron: France Will Lead if U.S. Backs Out of Ukraine War
The U.S. has, by far, been Ukraine’s biggest supporter and on Wednesday announced another $300 million drawdown from its own weapons stocks
French President Emmanuel Macron said France is prepared to lead Europe’s security if the U.S. elects a new president in 2024 who is less interested in confronting Russia in Ukraine as the war hawks in the Biden administration.
Macron told reporters that France will increase its defense spending by 100 billion euros and, no matter what happens, Paris will “increase our commitments, our investments, and our involvement.”
Americans are losing interest in supporting Ukraine’s effort to fight off Russia as the war continues to drag on with no signs that Moscow can be stopped.
A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that support is at 48 percent, which is a 12 percent drop from the 60 percent who approved the assistance last May.
Former President Donald Trump has said Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded if he was still in office, and expressed disagreement with U.S. support for Kyiv. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, walked back his comment that Ukraine was a “territorial dispute” and called Putin a “war criminal.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic challenger up against Biden, criticized the U.S.’s decision to support F-16s for Ukraine as a “dangerous escalation” without much upside.
“We must stop using Ukraine as a geopolitical pawn,” he told The Epoch Times in an interview. “[Biden should] negotiate a swift end to this war that is hemorrhaging Ukrainian blood and American treasure.”
Macron, for his part, said NATO should work to cement a security framework for Ukraine — even without full membership.
“I think we have to build something between the security provided to Israel and a full fledged membership,” he said, according to DefenseOne. “I think we need to talk concrete and tangible security guarantees.”
The U.S. has, by far, been Ukraine’s biggest supporter and on Wednesday announced another $300 million drawdown from its own weapons stocks.
The Biden administration has committed more than $37.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's invasion in February 2022, according to the Defense Department.
TRENDPOST: Kennedy told reporters that the U.S. seems to be doing all it can to prolong the war, and noted how Biden doesn’t even hide his long-term goal of regime change inside the Kremlin.
Biden said in the first weeks of the war—during a speech in Poland—that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to stay in power.
The White House walked back from the president’s comments and called it a gaffe, but similar messages from top administration officials show that the campaign in Ukraine is not just about the removal of Russian troops.
Shortly after Biden’s comments at the time, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters that Washington wants to “weaken” Russia “to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”
Austin did not walk those comments back, and a National Security Council spokesperson told CNN that the former Raytheon board member’s comment is consistent with the U.S. goals to “make this invasion a strategic failure for Russia.”
Kennedy said Austin’s comments show the U.S. is using Ukrainians to weaken Russia during a war of attrition.
“And who is getting killed? It’s the Ukrainians,” Kennedy said.