French President Emmanuel Macron summoned the leaders of the United States, Joe Biden, and Russia, Vladimir Putin, to hold a bilateral summit this Sunday to try to de-escalate the tension over Ukraine and both leaders accepted, according to the French Executive. . In the case of Biden, under the condition that the Kremlin does not proceed before the invasion of the former Soviet republic. The White House confirmed this point in a statement at night.
“As the president has emphasized, we are committed to the diplomatic track until such time as the invasion begins,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “We are always prepared for diplomacy. We are also prepared to impose swift and harsh consequences if Russia chooses to go to war. And right now Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine very soon,” she added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov will hold a preparatory meeting on Thursday, also conditional on Russia not intervening in Ukraine before then. The appointment between the presidents will take place afterwards. According to the French presidency, after the bilateral meeting another one is planned with all the parties involved on security and strategic stability in Europe.
Macron spoke twice with Putin this Sunday and consulted with Biden between the two calls. Hours later, the Elysee communicated this opportunity for dialogue. Earlier, the Elysee had already reported that the French president had obtained a commitment from Putin to try to agree on a ceasefire in the so-called line of contact in eastern Ukraine.
Although the Kremlin continues to speak of Kiev’s responsibility for the escalation of tension in Donbas with its “provocations”, it has accepted the format proposed by Paris for a diplomatic solution: a meeting this Monday of the so-called trilateral contact group, made up of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), according to Macron and Putin “have agreed on the need to re-establish the ceasefire and Russia has accepted that the trilateral contact group meet tomorrow [lunes] to work on the ceasefire, ”explained Elysee sources. According to the French presidency, the French and Russian foreign ministers, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Sergei Lavrov, will also meet soon to continue the diplomatic route, a privileged option also for, in an expanded format with “Europeans, allies, Russians and Ukrainians”, to try, “if the conditions are met”, a meeting at the highest level “to define a new order of peace and security in Europe”, on a date yet to be defined.
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In a “last effort” to find a way out of the Ukrainian crisis through diplomatic channels, Macron spoke this Sunday for an hour and 45 minutes with Putin. Immediately afterwards, he linked another shorter conversation, lasting half an hour, with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, with whom he had already spoken on Saturday night and who “confirmed his determination not to react to provocations and to respect the ceasefire”. fire”, always according to the Elysee.
The triangulation of telephone interviews should allow an “intense” negotiation in the coming hours to find a way for all parties to comply with this ceasefire in the area where new incidents threaten to overwhelm the crisis. Macron also spoke this Sunday with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
For Paris, which has always advocated keeping dialogue open with all parties, the conclusion of this new marathon of talks is that the diplomatic channel has not been exhausted despite the tightening of warnings and the increase in incidents in the rebel provinces. from Donetsk and Luhansk.
“We are still in a situation of high volatility, of great danger in Europe, but our conclusion is that despite the fact that the risk is high, there is still room for diplomacy,” emphasizes the Elysee. “Each day that passes without there being a war is a day won for peace”, insist the French sources, who are committed to “continuing” on this path, “creating occasions and opportunities” to, at first, “calm” the situation on the line of contact and, on that basis, be able to subsequently have a “real dialogue on security in Europe”.
That there is a principle of agreement on the immediate goals – the ceasefire in Donbas – does not mean that Paris and Moscow are aligned on everything, far from it. The new telephone conversation – they have had several in recent days since their face-to-face meeting in Moscow on the 7th – has served for Macron and Putin to “verify their differences in interpretation” of the crisis, especially in relation to the negotiations with the Donbas separatists, in which Moscow accuses Kiev of being responsible for the impasse, while Macron has insisted on “respect for the Minsk agreements” which, recalls the Elysee, do not provide for Ukraine to negotiate directly with the separatists, a red line firmly drawn by Zelensky. Hence the importance, says Paris, of Monday’s meeting of the tripartite group to find a way to negotiate the ceasefire and that “orders be given to the military of both parties” so that the ceasefire can be restored, although he insists, as he has been doing after each Moscow promise, that it will be necessary to “verify” that what has been announced is fulfilled.
Blinken warns that Ukraine is “on the verge of an invasion”
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed this Sunday that all actions taken by Moscow suggest imminent aggression against Ukraine. “Everything we are seeing indicates that this is very serious, that we are on the verge of an invasion,” he said in an interview on CNN.
The head of US diplomacy mentioned the tensions in the separatist region of Donbas and recalled the plan attributed to the Kremlin to fabricate a “fake attack” against Russia in order to justify a new military intervention in the former Soviet republic. He has also cited the military exercises that Moscow has launched in Belarus, which have mobilized, he says, up to 30,000 soldiers and who were supposed to return to Russia this weekend, but will remain in the allied country. “All this together tells us that the script that we presented continues to move forward,” added Blinken.
As the president, Joe Biden, pointed out last Friday, Blinken has also indicated this Sunday that he believes that Putin “has already made the decision” to invade Ukraine, but has indicated that he is willing to meet with the Russian leader to avoid it until the last moment.
Aggression seems increasingly likely to the despair of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has openly called on his Western allies not to wait any longer and adopt now a package of sanctions against Russia, which is responsible, according to the allies, for several cyberattacks and attempts to destabilize the government in Kiev. Asked about this on the CBS network, Blinken responded this Sunday that the planned sanctions —and highly publicized by Washington— seek to “dissuade” Russia from possible aggression and that “once they are activated, that deterrent power is lost.”
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