WORLD BRIEFING: February 28, 2024

French President Emmanuel Macron has openly discussed the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine to help Kyiv win the war against Russia, a potential major escalation to the largest ground war Europe has seen since World War II. Though the possibility of Western democracies putting boots on the ground in Ukraine remains remote, Macron’s comments following a summit in support of Ukraine prompted a hawkish response from the Kremlin and sent European leaders scrambling to backtrack. A NATO official told CNN the alliance had “no plans” to deploy combat troops in Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who attended the meeting in Paris on Monday, said that while there was a good debate and detailed discussion on the topic, summit participants were “unanimous” in their opinion against deploying troops. Macron had told reporters at a news conference that while he and the other 21 European leaders present did not agree on deploying military personnel, the prospect was discussed openly. “Nothing should be ruled out,” he said. “We will do anything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war.” However, a raft of European officials came out Tuesday against such a plan. Among them were some of Ukraine’s more ardent supporters, including the United Kingdom, Poland, Spain and Italy, as well as officials from Hungary and Slovakia, two countries whose leaders have been criticized as pro-Russian - CNN

Ursula von der Leyen said windfall profits from Russian frozen assets should be used to buy weapons for Ukraine as discussions intensified between European allies about how to continue supporting the war-torn country. The proposal is the latest idea about how to use the roughly €300bn in Russian sovereign assets frozen by G7 allies in response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, amid a lack of consensus over the legality of using the funds and the most appropriate way to do so. “It is time to start a conversation about using the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets to jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine,” the European Commission president said in a speech to EU lawmakers on Wednesday. “There could be no stronger symbol and no greater use for that money to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live,” she added. Her statement is the first time the EU has linked the use of frozen Russian sovereign assets to potential weapons procurement and comes amid growing friction between western allies about how to support Ukraine - FT

More than a half a million people in Gaza are on the brink of famine, United Nations agencies warned on Tuesday, as the UN Security Council discussed food security in the stricken Palestinian enclave. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at least 576,000 people across Gaza are "facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation."  Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned "of a real prospect of famine by May, with 500,000 people at risk if the threat is allowed to materialize…Today, food aid is required by almost the entire population of 2.2 million people. Gaza is seeing the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world," Carl Skau, WFP Deputy Executive Director, told the Security Council. “One child in every six under the age of 2 is acutely malnourished." - CNN

Israeli and Hamas officials have downplayed hopes expressed by Joe Biden that a ceasefire in the war in Gaza is imminent, raising questions about whether a temporary truce can be implemented before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in two weeks’ time. Basem Naim, the head of Hamas’s political division in Gaza, said over WhatsApp on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement had not yet formally received a new proposal for a ceasefire since last week’s indirect talks in Paris mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar. The US leader’s remarks late on Monday that a temporary truce could be implemented as soon as 4 March were “premature” and did “not match the reality on the ground”, he said. Ahmad Abdel-Hadi, a Hamas representative in Beirut, also told a Lebanese broadcaster that significant progress on a deal had not been made. Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Biden’s comments came as a surprise and were not made in coordination with the country’s leadership. Hamas was continuing to push “excessive demands”, they said. - The Guardian

Alexei Navalny will be buried at a cemetery in Moscow on Friday, a spokesperson has confirmed. The service will be held at Borisovskoye Cemetery, after a farewell ceremony in the Maryino district. Alexei Navalny suddenly died in an Arctic prison earlier this month. Navalny's team had originally wanted to hold the funeral on 29 February, but "it quickly became clear that there was not a single person around who could dig a grave on that day", Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on X - BBC

Ukraine's military said its forces have withdrawn from two more villages near the eastern city of Avdiyivka, which was captured earlier this month by Russian forces, marking further losses for Ukraine as its troops continue to struggle with shortages of equipment, especially ammunition. Ukrainian troops withdrew from Stepove and Syeverne, which lie west of Avdiyivka, Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said on February 27 - RFE/Rl

This review is reprinted with the author’s permission from his World Briefing blog.