Macron triggered shock on Tuesday when he said, "Nothing can be excluded to pursue our objective: Russia cannot and must not win this war."

Macron's comments came after he hosted a conference Monday of European leaders that sought to rally greater support for Kyiv.

"The UK already has a small number of personnel in country supporting the armed forces of Ukraine, including for medical training," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman told reporters.

"We've got no plans to make a large-scale deployment," he said, adding: "The UK is also training large numbers of Ukrainian personnel here in the UK. We're obviously supporting Ukrainian troops as well through provision of equipment, supplies".

The Kremlin responded to Macron's statement by warning that sending troops to Ukraine was "absolutely not in the interests" of Western countries.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meanwhile said that "there will be no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European states or NATO states."