French President Emanuel Macron stuck his foot in his mouth over the idea of NATO sending troops to Ukraine to fight Russia.

Macron said in a news conference yesterday “We should not exclude that there might be a need for security that then justifies some elements of deployment. But I’ve told you very clearly what France maintains as its position, which is a strategic ambiguity that I stand by.

That’s all it took and several NATO countries, including the US, have already killed the idea and said they are not sending troops to Ukraine.

It started with the NATO chief:

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg denied considering whether troops would be sent to Ukraine, although he insisted the alliance would continue to support Ukraine, which is not a Nato member.

That was a bit ambiguous, but other countries were much more clear:

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there had been no change to the agreed position that no European country or Nato member state would send troops to Ukraine.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said the country had no plans for a large-scale military deployment to Ukraine, beyond the small number of personnel already training Ukrainian forces.

The office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy’s “support does not include the presence of troops from European or Nato states on Ukrainian territory”.

And just a few minutes ago…