Emmanuel Macron has urged Ukraine’s allies not to be “cowards” just days after refusing to rule out sending ground troops to the war-torn country.

“We are surely approaching a moment for Europe in which it will be necessary not to be cowards,” the French president told members of the French expatriate community in Prague while on a visit to the Czech Republic.

“War has returned to our land,” he added, warning that Russia had “become unstoppable”.

“We never want to see coming tragedies”, said the French president, who is expected during his visit to clarify France’s standpoint on a Czech plan to buy weapons outside Europe for Ukraine.

Mr Macron spoke of “powers that have become unstoppable” and that “are widening the threat every day, attacking us more and more”.

“We must be equal to the challenge of history and the courage it implies”, he insisted.

The French president’s words came days after he surprised allies by confirming that when it came to dispatching Western ground troops to Ukraine “nothing should be ruled out”. Mr Macron said it was important to keep Vladimir Putin guessing as to how far the West would go to denying him victory via “strategic ambiguity”.

“Anything is possible, if it is useful to reach our goal,” he added. “Russia cannot win this war.”

Reaction was swift with Nato leaders publicly denouncing the idea of sending European or alliance troops to Ukraine. Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, Joe Biden, the US president, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister and Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, all distanced themselves from his remarks.

Russia issued stark warnings of a “real threat” of nuclear war should such troops be sent.

The Elysée has since insisted it only meant personnel for training or support, not combat roles.

However, Mr Macron has stood by his comments saying they had been “carefully weighed”.

According to Ivo Daalder, former US ambassador to Nato, Mr Macron was aware of the type of reaction he could expect from allies as France had already mooted it.

“Weeks earlier, General Thierry Burkhard, France’s chief of the defence staff, had written to half his Nato colleagues, exploring the possibility of a coalition of the willing to take over certain tasks from Ukraine – including manning defensive systems, training forces in country, launching cyber operations and offering help in de-mining,” Mr Daalder wrote in Politico.

“No military leader would send this kind of letter without clear backing from their country’s top political leadership. And every ally, I am told, reacted with a furious ‘WTF?’. Seeing a sneaky political end run around them, they made clear their answer was an emphatic no.”

“And yet, it seems Paris didn’t listen – or possibly even care.”

In an interview with Czech newspaper Pravo on Tuesday, Mr Macron said: “We are sparking debate and thinking about everything we can do to support Ukraine.

“I have always been clear about our framework: we are not at war with the Russian people and we refuse to enter into a logic of escalation.”

Mr Macron is due to meet Petr Pavel, the Czech president, and Petr Fiala, the country’s prime minister, and will address a nuclear forum during his one-day visit.

He is expected to discuss buying ammunition outside of the EU to help Ukraine.

Last month, Mr Pavel said that working with Canada and Denmark, the Czechs had “identified” 500,000 rounds of 155-millimetre ammunition and 300,000 122-millimetre shells “which we would be able to deliver within weeks” to Ukraine given the needed funds.

The Financial Times said Prague was looking to amass $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) to pay for the munitions.

Last week, Mr Fiala said that around 15 nations were ready to join the initiative, including France.

Mr Macron said France would take part in the initiative but has not yet disclosed details as to how much it would contribute.