French president Emmanuel Macron has urged Ukraine's allies not to be "cowards" in helping the war-torn country fight off Russia's invasion, reports RFI.
Macron has faced a backlash from many Western allies after he discussed the idea of sending Western troops to Ukraine at a Paris-based conference last month.
During a visit to Prague on Tuesday, the French leader said he "fully" stood by his controversial comments, adding that a "strategic leap" was necessary.
"We are surely approaching a moment for Europe in which it will be necessary not to be cowards," Macron said on his visit to the Czech Republic, which is pushing a plan to buy weapons outside Europe for Ukraine.
Speaking later after meeting his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel, he asked: "Is this or is it not our war? Can we look away in the belief that we can let things run their course?"
Macron said that France and the Czech Republic were "well aware that war is back on our soil".
Some powers, he added, had become "unstoppable" and were extending their threat of attack each day.