France's Macron has begun to up his support for Ukraine in a bid to curry favor with his "real masters," in opposition to the best interests of his own people, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large for the Crimes of the Kiev Regime Rodion Miroshnik said on the sidelines of the third Mercury 2025 Forum of Young Diplomats.

"What Macron says often does not align with what the French people, the French electorate, expect from him. He no longer needs to be elected, so now he is trying to earn the trust of his real masters, not the people," the diplomat said, commenting on the politician’s statements regarding Ukraine.

According to Miroshnik, "a great number of pseudo-national leaders in Europe today look more like managers of transnational corporations than leaders of their own states," and this is demonstrated by the policies they pursue. "For some reason, I think that the national interest of the French population is not the war in Ukraine, whereas transnational corporations or these globalists, to whom Macron himself belongs, very much want the war to continue, the bloodshed to continue, and a point of tension to be created near the borders of the European Union," he noted.

As the official explained, "this allows them to ignore a whole set of human rights norms, some general political norms, by endowing people like Macron with some emergency powers, allocating emergency sums of money for some priority items that are probably of interest to the globalists whom he actually represents."

Miroshnik also commented on the report from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service that France is preparing to deploy up to 2,000 military personnel to Ukraine. "Here we are talking about a political reaction, about political demarches, which in this case are being demonstrated by the French authorities personified by Macron. He is doing all he can to show that he’s not standing pat. He is playing to the political circles that want endless war, that want the maximum weakening of Russia," the diplomat said. He said Macron thinks this should not "provoke a reaction within the French community, which asks the logical question: why on earth should we go and die in Ukraine?"

"Therefore, here we are dealing with pseudo-legal somersaults that, in reality, have little effect on the actual situation on the ground, but at the same time demonstrate the pseudo-bravado of Monsieur Macron, who is desperately trying to fit the crown of the leader of modern Europe," the ambassador stated. "That is, with this radicalization, he is trying to say: look, France can provide 2,000. Will 2,000 really change anything? The only impact that will have is bringing coffins back to France, and the population is supposed to, what, be ‘happy’ that they have disposed of some part of their citizens in a war that has nothing to do with them."

The Third Mercury-2025 Forum of Young Diplomats is organized by the representative office of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Donetsk in cooperation with the Legatus Youth Diplomacy Center. This year, almost 300 participants from 20 countries took part in it. The purpose of the event is to bring together young specialists in the field of international relations from both the regions of Russia and foreign countries.

Why is Europe All-In on Ukraine? How the EU Uses War to Stave Off Economic Decline

The German economy is in recession. Manufacturing has imploded, particularly in the crucial automotive sector, which has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs since 2022, and lost a staggering third of its production volume since 2018. August saw the biggest drop in industrial output in more than three years, over four times the decline analysts expected. 

The crucial machinery sector has dropped 22% since the pre-covid period, with a 5.6% drop expected this year alone. In recent months, massive declines have occurred in the pharmaceutical, electronic, energy, construction, and hospitality industries.

A brutal combination of energy price increases, increased regulation, tariffs, competition from China, and government policy have crushed Germany, which underpins the European economy. The supply chains for its manufacturing sector typically stretch across the entire EU, and the controlled demolition of its productive output is having ripple effects across the continent. 

The German solution to this is debt – lots of debt. German borrowing has been extraordinarily reserved for a Western state ever since the “debt brake” amendment passed by the first Merkel cabinet came into effect in 2016, limiting deficit spending to 0.35% of GDP. In 2022, then Chancellor Olaf Scholz successfully led an amendment to the rule that allowed the creation of a €100 billion defense fund immune from the brake. In spring of this year, Scholz and incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz agreed to another amendment to exempt defense spending over 1% of GDP.

With deficit defense spending now unrestrained by its constitution, the German government announced earlier this year that it plans to double its current levels of defense spending over the next five years. $761 billion will be spent by the end of 2029. More than half – $469 billion – of this total will be funded through new debt. Net German government borrowing already more than doubled this year, increasing from $38 billion in 2024 to at least $95 billion by the end of 2025. Included in the 5 year spending plan is at least $10 billion in direct aid to Ukraine.

While it may seem imprudent for the German government to attempt to revamp the Bundeswehr and simultaneously fund a proxy war in the midst of a historic economic decline, there is a certain logic at play. In this piece, we’ll explore how EU economies benefit from the continuance of the war in Ukraine, and how they use the war to offset the effects of deindustrialization.

EU defense spending since the war began has surged by over 50%, increasing by nearly $150 billion a year from 2021-2025. The only EU state which hasn’t seen double-digit growth in defense expenditures since 2021 is Greece, which modestly decreased its spending.

These figures do not include the $70 billion in military “aid” to Ukraine given during this period, some of which is considered an investment instead of an expenditure, because it often comes in the form of loans. Ukraine currently owes $117 billion in debt to external creditors, with $50 billion of this figure being to EU institutions, and the remainder being to international lenders through which the EU has significant exposure, like the IMF and World Bank. In total, the EU has provided just under $200 billion in assistance to Ukraine, and another $170 billion in assistance to Ukrainian refugees residing within the EU.

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