Macron doubles down on possible NATO deployment in Ukraine ahead of talks to bridge rift with Germany

• "We cannot exclude options," French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview, when asked to revisit his controversial comments about the potential deployment of Western troops into Ukraine.
• "The security of Europe and the security of the French people is at stake here," he added.
• Macron on Friday meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin for talks that many hope could silence simmering tensions over Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron has doubled down on the possibility of sending troops into Ukraine, a day before a key summit with Germany, which is staunchly opposed to the idea.

"We cannot exclude options," Macron said in a joint interview with TF1 and France 2 TV on Thursday, when asked to revisit controversial comments made in late February. At the time, the French leader refused to rule out the prospective deployment of Western troops into Ukrainian territory — resulting in scorn from Russia and a backlash from Macron's NATO allies.

"What we are doing is giving ourselves red lines," the French premier continued on Thursday, in comments translated by CNBC, noting that the international community has placed "too many limits in our vocabulary" regarding the war.

"If we decide today to be weak, if, in the face of someone who has no limits, who has crossed all the limits we have given him, if we naively tell him: 'I will not go farther than this or that.' In that moment we don't decide peace, we decide defeat."

The French leader declined to specify how he envisages a potential troop deployment into Ukraine, stressing instead that "the security of Europe and the security of the French people is at stake here."

In response to the comments, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, "France is already involved