Sending troops to Ukraine 'shouldn't be ruled out,' Polish FM says

Poland should not rule out sending its troops to Ukraine, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in an interview with the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza published on May 28.

The notion of Western troops being sent to Ukraine has been hotly debated since French President Emmanuel Macron said that Western military presence in Ukraine cannot be "ruled out" in the future.

The U.S. and multiple European allies, as well as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, have distanced themselves from Macron's statement.

"We should not rule out any option. Let (Russian President Vladimir) Putin guess what we will do," Sikorski said in answer to Gazeta Wyborcza's question about the possibility of sending Polish troops to Ukraine.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, in turn, said that Finland is not considering sending its troops to Ukraine, the Finnish outlet Yle reported on May 27.

Stubb's announcement comes after a Der Spiegel's article from May 26 said that Baltic states and Poland consider sending their troops to Ukraine if Russia achieves a breakthrough.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo also reiterated the president's stance. Orpo told Yle that he does not consider such a scenario possible for Finland, even if Russia moves deeper into Ukraine.

The prime minister added that Finland agreed to support Ukraine on the conditions established by Ukrainian authorities. Those include weapons supply and military training as of now, according to Orpo.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said earlier that the idea of sending Western troops to Ukraine has not advanced either in Estonia or at the EU level since "there is no clear understanding among the allies what it would bring."

Some NATO member states were also discussing the possibility of sending military instructors or contractors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops and assist with equipment repairs, the New York Times reported in mid-May.

Estonian PM: NATO training soldiers in Ukraine won’t escalate war

The NATO allies’ fears that sending troops to Ukraine to train the country’s soldiers could draw them into war with Russia “are not well-founded,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in an interview with the Financial Times published on May 20.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova