Crisis in Ukraine
The first thing the French president said to his Russian counterpart is that he trusts “the beginning of a de-escalation” in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have been meeting in the Kremlin for more than three hours trying to unravel the Ukrainian crisis. The meeting is being cordial, the two leaders, sitting at a table more than five meters long to avoid contagion, exchanged familiarity with each other and recalled that Macron’s current visit to Russia takes place on the day that marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of a great bilateral agreement after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Paris then recognized that Russia is the successor to the USSR.
As soon as the meeting began, the first thing Macron told Putin today is that he trusts “the beginning of a de-escalation” in Ukraine, in “starting to build a useful response collectively for Russia and for the rest of Europe” that averts the danger of war and establishes “elements of trust, stability, predictability for the whole world.”
In the opinion of the French president, “there will be no security or stability if the Europeans cannot defend themselves, but also if they are not capable of finding a common solution with all their neighbours, including the Russians. My priority now is the issue of Ukraine and the dialogue with Russia on de-escalation and the search for political conditions that allow overcoming crises. “We must advance on the basis of the Minsk Agreements and resume the difficult dialogue that requires progress from both parties. In this way we will be able to avoid the increase of tensions in Europe,” Macron stressed.
Before the start of the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov stressed the “importance” of these talks, but warned that progress is unlikely. “The situation is too complex to expect decisive breakthroughs after a single meeting,” Peskov said. In his words, a fundamental issue, linked to the Ukrainian crisis, is the “security guarantees” that Moscow demands from the West as a precondition for an eventual normalization of relations. And they consist of a withdrawal of NATO in Eastern Europe and the total veto that Ukraine may one day be part of the Alliance.
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