The political scientist explained Macron's statements by his desire to pursue a career in NATO or the European Commission.

Bellicose statements by French President Emmanuel Macron with accusations against Russia and plans to send troops to Ukraine are of a dual nature. On the one hand, Macron wants to achieve Paris' leadership in the European Union (EU), and on the other, to continue his political career at the head of NATO or the European Commission (EC). Political scientist Ivan Mezyuho shared this opinion with Izvestia on March 6.

The day before, Macron, in his address to the nation on March 5, stated that he intends to discuss the use of nuclear weapons in order to protect the entire EU. According to him, Russia has allegedly become a threat to France and Europe in the coming years. In addition, the French leader expressed the opinion that after the signing of the peace agreement on Ukraine, "it may be necessary" to deploy European peacekeepers on its territory.

"Macron has entered two political races. One of which concerns his country directly, and the other concerns the development of his future career. The French president sees the current situation as an opportunity to achieve the leadership of the French state in the European Union. There has always been a competition for leadership in the eurozone between France, Great Britain, when it was part of the European Union, and Germany," Mezyuho commented.

It is against this background that Macron has embarked on an escalation course, the source believes. At the same time, he noted that the French president is talking about sending a military contingent to Ukraine not now, but in the future, which makes his statement "veiled and full of political cunning."

"Macron realizes that his presidential term is coming to an end relatively soon, and I think he is looking for positions for himself in the future. There are at least two posts he could apply for. The first post is the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, the second is the head of the European Commission. <...And for this, he needs to try now to escalate the Ukrainian conflict," the political scientist explained.

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He also added that if France nevertheless sends troops to Ukraine, the fifth article of the NATO Charter, which implies that when attacking the forces of one of the participating countries, the rest will have to join the conflict, may not work, because Washington has changed the vector of policy on the Ukrainian track, and Paris will have to reckon with this.

"Macron is not the kind of person who will retire and write memoirs or quietly enter the Senate of the French Republic and sit quietly and nod to the new president. No, this is an ambitious person in a sense, not a negative one, but a political animal in a political sense," the expert concluded.

Also on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the deployment of EU peacekeeping forces in Ukraine for Russia href="https://iz.ru/1849737/2025-03-06/lavrov-sravnil-razmeshchenie-mirotvortcev-es-na-ukraine-s-prisutstviem-nato " target="_blank">will mean the same as the NATO presence. According to the minister, in any case, it will be the troops of the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, regardless of which flags and chevrons cover this operation.