French President Emmanuel Macron claimed to not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine at a meeting of European leaders in Paris on Monday.
"Nothing should be excluded. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war," the French president reportedly said.
French officials rushed to downplay Macron's remarks, explaining that he was not suggesting Western troops should be sent en masse to the front lines, but that "it was no longer a taboo to rule out involvement," according to the Financial Times. They assumed that Western troops could be involved in demining, maintaining and repairing weapons systems, or helping to secure the borders of other countries neighboring Russia, such as Moldova.
Meanwhile, a senior European defense official told the FT that "everyone knows there are Western Special Forces in Ukraine — they’ve just not acknowledged it officially."
However, information of Western operatives in Ukraine is not new.
As far back as June 2022 soon after the beginning of the Russian special military operation, the New York Times revealed that there was a strong CIA presence in Ukraine. "Even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some CIA personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly," the newspaper reported.
In November 2022, the Biden administration announced it would send military "weapons experts" to Ukraine, while in February 2023, the Washington Post revealed that the Pentagon wanted to insert US commandos in the form of "control teams" in Ukraine deploying them either in the Eastern European state or in a neighboring country.
In April last year, an apparent Pentagon leak revealed that at least 97 special forces soldiers from five NATO countries — including 14 US military personnel — have been operating in Ukraine. The authenticity of the documents appearing to be dated February and March 2023 has not been denied by the Pentagon.
The Pentagon leak prompted concerns within the House's Freedom Caucus which repeatedly advocated the pull-out of US troops from overseas missions that have not been approved by Congress.
Thus, on April 17, 2023, Republican Representative Matt Gaetz (FL-01) introduced a Privileged Resolution of Inquiry, urging President Joe Biden to give copies of any documents outlining plans for military assistance to Ukraine to the House of Representatives.
"The Biden administration and other allied countries have been misleading the world on the state of the war in Ukraine. There must be total transparency from this administration to the American people when they are gambling war with a nuclear adversary by having special forces operating in Ukraine," Gaetz said in a statement.
The same month, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a DC-based think tank, also raised the question as to how many US troops Washington had been deployed in Ukraine.
"What we don’t know much about is how many trainers and intelligence personnel might be working under contract for the US government on the ground in Ukraine," the think tank wrote. "The use of contractors, whether they be Americans or third parties, has been widespread since the US launched a Global War on Terror after 9/11."
The QI quoted the Congressional Research Service that estimated that there were approximately 22,000 contractor personnel working for the Pentagon throughout the US Central Command’s area of responsibility, as of the end of 2022.
Most recently, a NYT bombshell revealed that a network of a whopping 12 CIA secret bases have been operating in Ukraine since 2014, suggesting that the US spy and military presence in Ukraine is even bigger than one could imagine.
Speaking to Sputnik on February 28, a commander of one of the volunteer units of the Russian Armed Forces participating in hostilities near Artemovsk said that his troops had observed NATO Spec Ops in Ukraine on multiple occasions.
"Representatives of the special operations forces of NATO countries have long been spotted in the Artemovsk area. This is not a secret. The blocking units that do not allow the Ukrainians to retreat often consist of them. We have already ‘met’ them here," said the commander.
"They have long been here. Previously, they tried to present them as volunteers and mercenaries, but eventually their real status has become obvious. Near Bogdanovka, our guys destroyed a group of such Spec Ops, and the defense in this area crumbled, the Ukrainians gave up," the Russian commander continued.
In addition, there are foreign military specialists operating sophisticated NATO-grade weapons, as well as in the ranks of signalmen, pilots and military consultants, according to Sputnik interlocutor.
NATO military personnel have been in Ukraine for a long time and are actively assisting the Ukrainian military on the ground, according to Russian Foreign Ministry representative Maria Zakharova. Earlier, Moscow warned NATO that putting boots on the ground in Ukraine could lead to a direct confrontation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov likewise told reporters that if NATO sent troops to fight in Ukraine, a conflict with the alliance "wouldn’t be likely, but inevitable":
"In this case, it is no longer relevant to talk about the likelihood of conflict, but about its inevitability," Peskov stressed. "This is how we evaluate it. And [NATO] countries should be aware of that and evaluate this in the same way. They have to wonder whether this corresponds to their interests, and most importantly, the interests of the citizens of their countries."