NATO member says Macron’s Ukraine idea could start WWIII

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has condemned the latest remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron about the option of sending troops to Ukraine, and has warned such a move could ultimately spark an all-out nuclear war.

Speaking to French broadcaster LCI on Thursday, Szijjarto was asked for his take on Macron’s renewed threat to deploy his country’s troops to back up Kiev. The diplomat strongly condemned the idea, saying that the French leader’s comments themselves have contributed to escalating the situation.

“If a NATO member commits ground troops, it will be a direct NATO-Russia confrontation and it will then be World War Three,” Szijjarto told the broadcaster.

Macron made fresh belligerent remarks in an interview with The Economist published Thursday, doubling down on previous statements about the prospect of deploying French troops to Ukraine. The president said his original remarks, made earlier this year, were a “strategic wake-up call for my counterparts.” He suggested that Paris could deploy troops “if the Russians were to break through the front lines” and a request for help came from Kiev.

Hungary’s top diplomat also criticized Macron’s idea that France’s nuclear weapons could become a part of a “credible European defense.”

“In peacetime it would be different, but in wartime such statements can be misinterpreted and have serious consequences,” Szijjarto stated, warning that, should the situation escalate into a global nuclear war, “it will be over for everyone.”

Speaking to Hungarian broadcaster M1 earlier in the day, the minister also rejected NATO’s proposed €100 billion ($107 billion) five-year plan for a war chest to prop up Ukraine, floated by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, describing it as “madness.”

“In the coming weeks during negotiations we will fight for Hungary’s right to stay away from this madness, from collecting these 100 billion and siphoning them out of Europe,” Szijjarto stated.

Hungary has been consistently opposed to the growing involvement of both the US-led NATO and the EU in the Ukrainian conflict, refusing to support Kiev militarily, including through sending weaponry or training Ukrainian troops.