Manon Fossat
modified to
9:03 a.m., February 11, 2022
On Europe Matin on Friday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal returned to the Ukrainian crisis and Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Russia to try to force a military withdrawal to the border, without obtaining it. However, he felt that commitments had been made and said he was lucid about the tensions with Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia to try to find a way out of the Ukraine crisis. But the head of state did not pull anything, or almost nothing, in the face of the firmness of the master of the Kremlin. Invited to Europe Matin on Friday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal returned to this crisis and the Head of State’s trip. He assured that France has obtained commitments to stem the escalation and affirmed that the executive is not “naive” about the tensions with Russia.
“If we were to have any doubt, measures would be taken”
“We know that the situation is very tense […] We are not naive and if we were to have any doubts, measures would be taken”, assured Gabriel Attal while the American president Joe Biden declared this night that a war “is imminent”. “France’s vision is to seek at all costs diplomatic solutions to achieve de-escalation. Emmanuel Macron went to Russia, Ukraine, Berlin, there was a very important meeting of diplomatic advisers, heads of state and government of the Normandy format on Thursday. We keep moving forward.”
Gabriel Attal also said that when the government has decisions to make or comments to make on this crisis, it does. “There must be no naivety or desire to lead to escalation, that is the position we hold,” he continued. “With the meetings that took place at the beginning of the week, I believe we have obtained commitments to stop the escalation and we must now arrive at the de-escalation.”