Dire forecast of the British general

Just to recall that French President Emmanuel Macron said that there are "no limits" to his country's support for Ukraine, urging allies not to be "cowards" and hinting that French soldiers could be directly involved in the conflict in certain circumstances.

"The cloud of nuclear threat has been hovering over the Ukrainian conflict since the very beginning. This week we learned that the US was preparing for Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons in late 2022, following Moscow's repeated threats of escalation.

Senior Russian generals, meanwhile, are mulling the prospect of a full-scale conflict with the rest of Europe," Bretton-Gordon wrote in an op-ed for Msn.com, reported by Blic.

"The question must be whether Macron's approach will make this more or less likely. My opinion is that if Putin prevails in Ukraine, war with NATO will follow shortly. Therefore, we must ensure that this does not happen. Macron's idea to see NATO boots on the ground is therefore correct. If we are not willing to consider this, we are handing over a critical initiative to Moscow," said de Bretton-Gordon in an article entitled "Macron has to be bluffing - or trying to start a new world war".

"The problem is that the Kremlin may not believe a single word coming from the Elysée Palace. There's too much of a chance that Macron is simply rattling his sabers to the home crowd in a creepy attempt to increase his vote share. This interpretation is given weight by his 'Jekyll and Hyde' performance regarding Russia, switching between complacency and aggression when it comes to public opinion. It is impossible to say in what mood he will wake up tomorrow".

"With that in mind, the first priority must be to ensure that Ukraine prevails, holds the Russians back, and then sends them back to where they came from. That is what Macron should focus on. Instead of thinking about deploying troops, which is months away, he should be focusing on getting ammunition for Kyiv - and lots of it. The Ukrainian armed forces could certainly use more (missiles) 'Storm Shadows' and long-range HIMARS precision missiles; Macron should try to convince Germany to unlock its huge and extremely significant stockpile of Taurus missiles, which could significantly threaten Putin's war effort," de Bretton-Gordon believes.

"Secondly, the Ukrainians need air superiority to enable their armored formations to break through the defensive Surovikin line and get behind the numerous but static Russians. That's how we broke through Saddam Hussein's defense line in 1991 and crushed his massive and static army in four days. This was made possible by superior air power. Then as a young tank commander, I did not see any Iraqi aircraft in the air to restrict my movement. (Fighters) F-16s are coming (to Ukraine) and hopefully they will be in the air soon, but they will need more for the Ukrainian Air Force to really change the balance”.

"If Macron, however, really wants to put his boots on the ground, the most useful thing he can do is send military advisers. Ukrainian soldiers do not lack fighting spirit, but we must enable them to fight as combined armed maneuver formations. It will require training and tactical skills. At the moment, I hear that single and isolated tank battles are being fought, with the (British tank) 'Challenger 2' being used as long-range artillery or just to attack trenches. It didn't work for tanks in the first conflicts of World War I, so it won't work here either. But when the tanks were used in a combined arms manner, with air power, infantry and artillery, they overwhelmed the Germans at the Battle of Cambrai on November 20, 2017 and achieved the greatest successes of the war. We should give Ukraine the benefit of our expertise and training to enable this kind of success”.

"So, President Macron: a little less extravagant talk and more jets, if you like. Some ammo wouldn't go amiss either. You are right that NATO and Europe must be ready to fight against Russia as a last resort, but first we need to exhaust the other options open to us", de Bretton-Gordon concluded.