Preparing people's minds for the "jolt" in support for Kyiv that he has been calling for, yet without specifying its precise form: Such was the complex equation that the Emmanuel Macron attempted to solve on Thursday, March 14, on France's two most-watched television channels, TF1 and France 2, in a bid to appease the outcry provoked both at home and abroad by his controversial statements on the possibility of sending allied troops to Ukraine.

The French president sought to convince his many detractors that this conflict represents an "existential" threat "for our Europe and for France." This war, "on our doorstep," he said, "is the end of the carelessness I spoke of a few years ago."

"If the situation were to deteriorate, we must be ready and we will be ready," he continued, without detailing his intentions or ruling out anything, not even the deployment of French troops on Ukrainian territory. "There is an escalation on Russia's part" and "we must say that we are ready to respond," he stated, less than two weeks after having said, on February 26 at the Elysée, that "nothing must be excluded" on this issue.

"We have put too many limits in our vocabulary," he stressed, a few hours before flying to Berlin to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been at pains to avoid escalation with Moscow, and who had bristled at the French president's recent remarks. The two men were due to attempt to iron out their differences on the issue during a one-on-one meeting, before being joined by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. This tripartite attempt to patch things up comes a week before the next European Council meeting, which will be largely devoted to the war in Ukraine.

This is a serious time for the president, as Russian troops advance in the Donbas, following the failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive that was launched in the summer of 2023. "If that war were to spread to Europe, that would be Russia's only choice. But to decide today that we would not respond is to already accept defeat," he warned. "If we let Ukraine lose this war, then Russia will certainly threaten Moldova, Romania and Poland," he added.

"If Russia wins this war, Europe's credibility will be reduced to zero. French people's lives would change. We would no longer have security in Europe. The security of the French is at stake over there," said Macron, while also warning of the disastrous consequences on the prices of wheat and gas, as well as on national sovereignty.

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