GERMAN peace campaigners have called for their country to oppose Nato troops being sent to fight in Ukraine.

The Action Alliance against the Nato Security Conference also urged an immediate ceasefire and the opening of peace talks between Ukraine, the Nato military bloc and Russia.

Wednesday’s statement by the group came days after the second anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a widely criticised remark by French President Emmanuel Macron that sending Western troops into the conflict should not be “ruled out.”

“While Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz, in an initial reaction, rejected the French president’s ideas by refusing to become a party to the war through the deployment of ground troops, voices in Germany are also emerging in support of such plans,” the group said.

Mr Scholz, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg and a number of other Western leaders were quick to reject Mr Macron’s call.

But it was clear that there had been discussions within the US-led bloc about whether to put Nato boots on the ground in Ukraine, as the conflict looks increasingly like a lost cause for the West. 

The group said that Mr Macron was attempting “to prevent the impending military defeat of Kiev at any cost.”

But, it warned, “such a step would lead to a direct confrontation between the Russian federation and Nato, with the inevitable consequence of escalating the war in Ukraine into a third world war.

“To prevent this and instead seek a path to peace, we consider the immediate initiation of negotiations as a necessary step to avert a catastrophe for Europe and the world.”

The Action Alliance said it rejected any attempt to resolve conflicts in the heart of Europe through military violence and demanded that there be “no deployment of Nato ground troops in Ukraine, a ceasefire and immediate peace negotiations.”