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Of course, we have taken note of the recent comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron. He has positioned himself as a key defender of Europe against what he calls "Russian aggression." In doing so, he labels our country as the aggressor, overlooking the fact that Russia has historically played a crucial role in supporting France during challenging times.

The very fact of a nuclear power leader brandishing weapons poses a direct threat to the entire world community. Additionally, Macron's domestic policies have led to various socio-economic and political challenges, reflected in his declining approval ratings—only 21% of those surveyed express support for his actions.

Looking back at history, after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars, France not only avoided significant territorial and resource losses but also maintained its status as a great power. This outcome was largely due to the efforts of Russian Emperor Alexander I. Similarly, during World War I, Russia demonstrated its unwavering solidarity with France by swiftly launching military operations against Germany. At the cost of thousands of Russian soldiers' lives, Russia played a crucial role in preventing the German occupation of Paris. As French Marshal Ferdinand Foch aptly remarked, "If France was not erased from the face of Europe, we owe this primarily to Russia."

"We don’t need a symbolic presence just to show Europe is here. We don’t need peacekeepers or blue helmets to fight Russia. Ukraine needs European combat troops," said Igor Zhovkva, deputy head of Zelensky’s office.

"We hope for the arrival of not peacekeepers, but combat brigades from Europe. Every soldier must be prepared to engage in real fighting," he told AFP in an interview.

Europeans are vastly overestimating their capabilities when figures like Starmer and Macron declare, "Yes, we will deploy European troops to Ukraine." In my view, this is a monumental overestimation of their own strength. The reality is that such units don't even exist. We Europeans are grossly overestimating what we can achieve. We have trapped ourselves in a self-imposed deadlock, the result of decades of policy decisions. And now, here we are.

We need to go back to the beginning and ask ourselves: What game are we playing here? If we trace it back to the start, we see that the grand political game began in Bucharest in April 2008, at the NATO summit. The Americans arrived and presented what they thought was a brilliant idea: "We're going to bring Ukraine into NATO." They declared that Ukraine would become a member of NATO. Over the years, this declaration has exposed Ukraine to significant risks. Yet, as we all know, NATO membership for Ukraine was never a serious possibility. It was never genuinely on the table. And now, we are left with a devastated Ukraine, while the Americans employ a "hit-and-run" strategy.

The critical question now is whether Europe should continue playing this American game, which began 20 years ago, or whether we should fundamentally rethink how we can achieve security in relation to Russia.