Baltic states and Poland may deploy troops to Ukraine if Russia succeeds, media says

The Baltic states and Poland do not rule out sending their troops to Ukraine if Russia succeeds on the battlefield, reports German media Der Spiegel.

According to Spiegel, Baltic MPs warned representatives of the German government about the consequences of Berlin's policy towards the Ukraine war on the sidelines of the Lennart Meri Conference on foreign and security policy, which took place in the Estonian capital last week.

Germany refuses to provide the Ukrainian army with long-range weapons and prohibits the Ukrainian Armed Forces from striking Russian territory with Western weapons.

"They argue that if the Russians manage to make a strategic breakthrough in eastern Ukraine because the West is only half-heartedly helping Kyiv, the situation could escalate dramatically. In that case, the Baltic states and Poland would not wait for Russian troops to deploy on their borders, Baltic politicians warned, but would send troops to Ukraine themselves. And it was clear what this would mean: NATO would become a party to the war," the article says.

As Spiegel explains, this is exactly the scenario that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden fear.

"Those who want to limit the war through excessive restraint actually risk getting it out of control," the media says.

Talks about sending Western troops to Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron was the first to voice the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine. But Macron's idea was supported only by the Baltic states and Poland, while the rest of NATO countries, including Germany, criticized the French leader's statement.

Recently, The New York Times reported that NATO was discussing the possibility of sending military instructors to Ukraine to train soldiers. Currently, NATO troops are training Ukrainian soldiers abroad.

Zelenskyy also voiced the idea of deploying NATO instructors to Ukraine. He explained that this could speed up the training of the Ukrainian military, as they would not have to be sent to Poland, Germany, or Britain.