MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday that press reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had pledged to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron not to take any new military moves near Ukraine for the time being did not were “not accurate”.
A member of the French delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin pledged during his meeting with Emmanuel Macron on Monday to refrain from launching any new military maneuvers in the near future. of Ukraine in order to promote a possible de-escalation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said for his part that the two leaders had not yet reached an agreement on de-escalation in Ukraine but, stressing the need for such a reduction in tensions, he specified that this meeting had laid the foundations for further work on this dossier.
According to the same French official, Vladimir Putin also promised that the Russian troops sent to Belarus for joint military exercises near the Ukrainian border would return to Russia at the end of these maneuvers, the end of which is scheduled for February 20.
Dmitry Peskov said that these troops would return to their bases in Russia after these exercises, without giving a precise timetable, and stressed that it had never been said that these soldiers would remain in Belarus.
(Report Dmitry Antonov, written by Alexander Marrow; French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
click here for restrictions
©2022 Reuters
