A deployment of Western troops to Ukraine, which Hungary opposes, would violate NATO's common consensus, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RIA Novosti.
"I have to tell you that there's a NATO decision in place which we support and this common decision of ours does not allow any ground troops to be deployed to Ukraine because that will be a violation of our common NATO decision," Szijjarto said.
Szijjarto noted that it is reassuring to him to see a vast majority of the European leaders, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, oppose the prospects of sending Western troops to Ukraine in light of Macron's statement. A deployment of Western troops to Ukraine would increase the chances of igniting a third world war, he added.
A deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine would make a direct conflict between the alliance and Russia inevitable, the Kremlin said. Russia needs to stay on alert as the current generation of European politicians do not have a self-preservation instinct, the Kremlin stated in response to Macron's remarks.
Szijjarto also spoke out about a leaked conversation between German military officers regarding a potential Taurus missile strike on the Crimean Bridge using a French fighter jet, saying that NATO member states should do everything possible to avoid a direct confrontation between the military alliance and Russia.
"We have to do our best in order to avoid any kind of direct confrontation between NATO and the Russian Federation," he said.
Last week, Margarita Simonyan — editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, — published a recording of the February 19 conversation between four German military officers. Germany has confirmed the authenticity of the recording.
On Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ruled out the possibility of supplying long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine and said that the government is investigating the leaked conversation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the content of the leaked audio recording points to direct involvement of the collective West in the Ukraine conflict.