French president, Emmanuel Macronwarned this Sunday that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, wants to “intensify” the war in Ukraine so Kiev’s allies must maintain their support.
“It’s clear that Putin’s intentions are to intensify the fighting. It can be seen for several weeks and in this context we must keep our commitments to the Ukrainians,” he said in a statement to the press.
Macron, who spoke at Buenos Aires airport shortly before leaving for Rio de Janeiro for the G20 summit, recalled that Russian forces launched today on Ukraine “one of the most intense attacks since the beginning of the conflict.” February 2022.
Putin “does not want peace and is not willing to negotiate it. And I think the duty of all of us is to push Russia to cease the fighting,” he insisted.
He explained that eventually “it will be necessary to negotiate a lasting peace and negotiated, i.e. a peace that will allow to regulate territorial issues, but also security guarantees for Ukraine”.
And on this point, the French president considered it “absolutely essential to give visibility to the Ukrainian in terms of guarantees and support”.
“But I think today, if we want to know what Putin’s intentions are, what he just did on the ground. clearly shows it“, he added.
Macron recalled that a Ukrainian mechanized brigade, which has been trained and equipped in France, will soon leave for its home country “to join this war of resistance.”
Scholz: “This is not good news.”
For his part, Germany’s Chancellor, Olaf Scholzdefended on Sunday the criticized phone call he held on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first in two years, which the German leader justified given its importance, although he also indicated that the Russian president has not changed his position on his war strategy in Ukraine, which “is not good news”.
Soon after the first information about the call appeared, the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenskisaid he regretted the telephone conversation, understanding that this could be the first of many other conversations with other leaders. “He has opened Pandora’s box.” has said. “Now there can be other talks, other calls and this is exactly what Putin wanted for a long time,” the Ukrainian president said.
“It was important,” Scholz has counterargued to the media before flying to Brazil to participate in the G20 summit. “The conversation was quite detailed.but the Russian president’s position has changed little and this is not good news,” he added in statements reported by the German newspaper Die Welt.
The chancellor has insisted that, above all, it is necessary to be “clear” on “the question of principle that Ukraine can rely” on his country and “no decision will be taken without taking into account its leaders.”
Scholz has also spoken out about a possible conversation between Putin and the next U.S. president, Donald Trump in arguing that would be inconsistent that this type of dialogue could not take place with Germany.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea that talks between the U.S. president and the Russian president are being considered in the near future and that instead he is not holding talks the head of government of a major European country“such as Germany.