Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's comments have set off a firestorm between France and Italy.

France summoned the Italian ambassador on Thursday after Salvini urged President Emmanuel Macron to put on a bullet-proof vest and go to Ukraine himself, in critical remarks about French support for the possible deployment of European peacekeeping troops in post-war Ukraine.

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Security guarantees

This dispute highlights the differences among Europeans over the security guarantees they would be prepared to provide to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement to deter any future Russian aggression.

France and the United Kingdom are calling for the deployment of a security guarantee force with air, sea and land components.

"This would not be a neutral force between the two parties, but a force alongside the Ukrainians that would aim to dissuade Russia from resuming its possible aggression against Ukraine by showing it that if it were to resume hostilities, this time it would not be facing the Ukrainians alone, but a coalition of countries in Europe," Élie Tenenbaum, Director of the Centre for Security Studies at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), told Euronews.

This force would not take the form of a "peacekeeping or interposition operation along the front line," but would be located "rather upstream, behind the front line, alongside the Ukrainians," he adds.

Macron is said to have taken the lead in the name of European strategic autonomy and the ability of Europeans to defend themselves.

"We have gradually seen, especially from 2023 and increasingly so in 2024 and 2025, Emmanuel Macron take up this issue and make security guarantees for Ukraine a staple of his policy and his vision for Europe," Tenenbaum added.

He also dismissed Salvini's accusations that the French leader was trying to distract from waning domestic popularity.

"I don't think today that political analysts and political advisers at the Élysée Palace believe that the Ukrainian issue is particularly promising in terms of domestic policy, even if it obviously contributes to the President's stature," he said.

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