Vladimir Putin would not want peace but a “capitulation” of Ukraine, said the French president, Emmanuel Macron on Sunday after a videoconferencing meeting with the “volunteer coalition” allies of kyiv.
“Do I think President Putin wants peace?” If you want my intimate conviction, no. He wants the capitulation of Ukraine, that’s what he proposed, “said the French head of state.
Mr. Macron also said on Sunday wanting “a robust, sustainable peace, that is to say respectful of international law, (…) which respects sovereignty, the territorial integrity of all countries”. On the contrary, he considered that Donald Trump was looking for peace between Russia and Ukraine.
On the eve of a meeting between Mr. Trump and the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday in Washington, in which Mr. Macron and several European officials must also participate, “our desire is to present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians”, and to ask the Americans “to what point” they are ready to contribute to the security guarantees that would be offered to Ukraine, French president.
The question of security guarantees in favor of Ukraine is at the center of the development of a possible peace agreement because they would aim to dissuade Russia from again attacking Ukraine.
He was cautious about the possibility put forward by Donald Trump to provide Ukraine with protections similar to those of NATO, without kyiv became a member of the Atlantic Alliance. “I believe that a theoretical article is not enough. The question is the substance, ”he said.
“How can we collectively ensure that the international order is respected and that our security to everyone is protected, because it is the security of Europeans and France,” he said since his summer residence of the Brégançon Fort (south-east of France), after more than two hours of meeting of the “coalition of volunteers”.
“There cannot be territorial discussions on Ukraine without the Ukrainians” and, “in the same way no discussion on the security of Europeans without them,” added Emmanuel Macron, asking the latter to be invited to the next summits on Ukraine.
“We are going tomorrow (in Washington) not simply to support the Ukrainian president, we are going to defend the interests of Europeans,” he said.
Reacting to the words of Mr. Macron on a “capitulation” of Ukraine wanted according to him by Moscow, the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, accused on Sunday on Telegram the French leader of “abject lie”.
According to her, Moscow proposed a “peaceful regulation” of the conflict for seven years as part of the Mininsk agreements which had followed the annexation in 2014 of Ukrainian Crimea by Russia and the beginning of a war in eastern Ukraine between kyiv and the separatists supported by the Kremlin.
Ms. Zakharova also criticized Mr. Macron for having shimped in kyiv “a victory on the battlefield by understanding perfectly that it is impossible”, delivered weapons to Ukraine and made “false promises to the Ukrainians”.