French President Emmanuel Macron has talks Sunday with Vladimir Putin, an emergency diplomatic effort to try to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine, where tensions are growing on the front in the East.
French President Emmanuel Macron is meeting with Vladimir Putin on Sunday in an emergency diplomatic effort to try to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine, where tensions are growing on the eastern front. This interview scheduled for 10:00 GMT is maintained even as Kiev now calls on its Western allies to cease all “appeasement” policies towards Moscow, accused by Washington and Kiev of having massed 150,000 soldiers on the eastern Ukrainian borders. After their meeting on February 7 in Moscow, this discussion between the French and Russian leaders constitutes “the last possible and necessary efforts to avoid a major conflict in Ukraine”, underlined the Elysée.
The call comes as frontline gunfire in eastern Ukraine has spiked in recent days, with OSCE monitors reporting more than 1,500 ceasefire violations between Thursday and Friday, a record this year. . At the same time, the armies of Moscow and Minsk are supposed to end joint military maneuvers in Belarus, a neighbor of Ukraine, on Sunday, exercises started on February 10 and which have reinforced the concern of Westerners.
To read : Macron – Putin: behind the scenes of their meeting
NATO says Russia is planning a ‘comprehensive attack’
Russia can launch an attack on Ukraine “at any time”, repeats for its part the White House. US President Joe Biden convened a rare meeting of the National Security Council devoted to the Ukraine crisis on Sunday, a few days before a meeting between his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on February 24. But the lights are now red, with NATO saying that “all signs indicate that Russia is planning a full attack” on Ukraine.
Emmanuel Macron spoke on Saturday with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who says he does not want to “respond to provocations along the line of contact”, according to the Elysée. Volodymyr Zelensky “entrusted him with telling Vladimir Putin Ukraine’s availability for dialogue”, underlined the French presidency. “Russian military action against Ukraine would bring the war to the heart of Europe,” insisted a French presidential adviser. There would then be “no other possible option than a very strong reaction”, he added.
The Kremlin denies any intention to attack neighboring Ukraine, which the Kremlin wants to bring back into its sphere of influence. Moscow conditions de-escalation on “guarantees” for its security, such as the withdrawal of NATO’s military infrastructure from Eastern Europe and the assurance that Ukraine will never join the Atlantic Alliance, demands unacceptable to Westerners.
Fighting on the Eastern Front
On the front, in eastern Ukraine, the fighting is intensifying. Kiev and the Moscow-backed separatists accuse each other of aggravating this conflict which has claimed more than 14,000 lives since 2014. Reinforcing concern, the secessionists announced on Saturday a “general mobilization” of men able to fight, after having ordered the evacuation of civilians to neighboring Russia. On the night of Saturday to Sunday, they again accused the Ukrainian army of dozens of ceasefire violations and ensure that Ukraine is preparing an attack, which Kiev categorically denies. According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, more than 40,000 people from separatist areas have been evacuated to Russia, a relatively low figure for areas where several hundred thousand people live.
For nearly three months, Washington has been sounding the alarm over preparations for a Russian offensive in Ukraine. On Friday, Mr. Biden said he was, for the first time, “convinced” that Vladimir Putin had decided to invade Ukraine “in the coming days”, and that the current multiplication of clashes on the front line in the east of the country aimed to create a “false justification” for launching the offensive. “No war with Russia”, “No more war, neither cold nor hot. What we need is love”, proclaimed the signs held up during a small demonstration on Saturday in New York. In Warsaw, a demonstration of solidarity with Ukraine is scheduled for Sunday at midday, when the Munich Security Conference ends. On Saturday, the Ukrainian president had urged Westerners to stop their “appeasement” policy vis-à-vis Moscow and to increase their military aid to Kiev, “shield of Europe”.
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