Europe is whipping up war hysteria

French President Macron raised the possibility that foreign troops of Baltic allies and Poland could be sent to Ukraine, but Berlin and many other capitals object, writes POLITICO.

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné was in Lithuania on Friday, where he met his Baltic and Ukrainian counterparts to buttress the idea that foreign troops could end up helping Ukraine in areas like demining.

"It is not for Russia to tell us how we should help Ukraine in the coming months or years," Séjourné said at a meeting chaired by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and attended by his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba. "It is not for Russia to organize how we deploy our actions, or to set red lines. So we decide it among us."

"Ukraine did not ask us to send troops. Ukraine is asking us to send ammunition at the moment," the French minister said. "We do not exclude anything for the coming months."

The Baltic ministers praised France for "thinking out of the box."

French President Emmanuel Macon last month raised the possibility that Western soldiers may have to be sent to Ukraine; immediately afterward most European countries — including Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland — said they had no such plans. However, the three Baltic countries — the most exposed to any Russian attack should Moscow succeed in its war against Ukraine — are much more open to the idea.

"The presence of NATO forces in Ukraine is not unthinkable," Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in Poland, adding that he appreciated Macron's initiative, "because it is about [Russian President Vladimir] Putin being afraid, not us being afraid of Putin."

Poland forces

Over the next year, 100 billion euros will be allocated for investment in the military-industrial complex.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton urged that Europeans “must switch to war economy mode,” writes the Polish ‘Gazeta Prawna’.

The plan for the European arms industry includes: "the creation of a European arms sales mechanism, funding of major European arms projects and a VAT exemption for a group of states that will jointly decide on the purchase of European weapons."

Arms spending in Europe rose 13% in 2022, the highest since the end of the Cold War, according to a report from the Stockholm Peace Research Institute SIPRI. Poland has increased its military spending by 11% during this time and is among the leaders along with Finland, Lithuania and Sweden.

Finland, which was preparing to join NATO in 2022 and joined the alliance in early April 2023, is the champion in arms spending among European countries. The country increased its military budget by 36%, its highest result since 1962. In second place is Lithuania, which increased spending in the military sector by 27%, in third place is Sweden (an increase of 12%). Poland increased its defense budget by 11% and took fourth place in Europe.

Overall, military spending by Central and Western European countries in 2022 amounted to $345 billion, which is 30% higher than in 2013.

…Two trends are currently emerging in Europe. The first tendency is to join the war against Russia. This idea is promoted by the French President, and some Eastern European countries support Macron. One can only guess what will happen to their troops in the event of European aggression against Russia…

Another trend is to refrain from direct intervention by EU countries in military operations in Ukraine, but at the same time increase their strike potential for a further war with Russia. At the same time, there is Britain which is actively seeking to provoke the East Europeans to enter the war. London, historically, wants to harm Russia, but doesn’t want to do it itself. They well remember in Britain that the aggression of the British and their allies to the Crimea in the mid-19th century ended by the defeat of British and French forces, who did not achieve their goals as a result of that war. Now London and Paris want  to use proxies against Russia, this time - the armies of Eastern Europe whipping up war hysteria.

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