PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, during a telephone interview, to “respect the sovereignty of States” by referring to the Ukrainian crisis, according to a source at the Elysee.
During this exchange, says the source, Vladimir Putin reiterated his request for security guarantees from the United States and NATO, as the Kremlin had previously reported in a press release.
To which the French president replied, we add from the same source: “We need Russia to respect the sovereignty of States”.
As it stands, the Russian leader considers the responses provided by Westerners insufficient. Russia again denied on Friday any bellicose intentions towards Ukraine, as accused by the United States, while it massed troops on the Ukrainian border.
France has indicated its desire, via a “demanding” dialogue also wanted by the White House, to “lower the tension” and “to give substance to this de-escalation that we want to begin on the Ukraine file”, depending on the source.
But we underlined Friday on the French side the persistence of differences.
Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron have however agreed to continue the dialogue on security issues in Europe, with the full and complete involvement of European states in these discussions.
In this perspective, Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his commitment to negotiations in the “Normandy format” between Russian, Ukrainian, German and French representatives. Germany and France are working together to relaunch these discussions left in abeyance in order to achieve a de-escalation.
“Dialogue with Russia is a necessity”, we insist in Paris.
President Emmanuel Macron was due to speak Friday evening by telephone with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski.
(Report John Irish, French version Sophie Louet and Bertrand Boucey)