The French president spoke at length with his Russian counterpart. While Washington believes that a military attack from Russia may come next week, Emmanuel Macron continues to seek a way to de-escalate.
The tension does not go down, it is the least that one can say. Two days after the start of large-scale military exercises led by Russia alongside Belarus, the Kremlin announced that the Russian navy would carry out maneuvers in the Black Sea and Azov on Sunday.
It is in this particularly tense context that Emmanuel Macron spoke once again with his Russian counterpart this Saturday. According to the Elysée, the telephone conversation lasted 1h40 and the French president warned Vladimir Putin that a “sincere dialogue was not compatible with an escalation” military at the Ukrainian border.
Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin “both expressed a willingness to continue the dialogue” and seek “Ways to move forward on the implementation of the Minsk agreements” on the Donbass and on “the conditions of security and stability in Europe”added the French presidency.
Finally, the Elysée specifies that the French president has also “transmits the concerns of its European partners and its allies”. The Kremlin’s response was quick. For Putin, the accusations against Russia are “provocative speculations”.
For Washington, the Russian invasion could intervene at “any time”
This discussion follows the five-hour tete-a-tete the two presidents had on Monday in the Kremlin. All week, Emmanuel Macron has tried to maintain diplomatic exchanges. He then traveled to Kiev on Tuesday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before heading to Berlin. The Elysée had indicated that this diplomatic tour had reached its “goal” allowing “to move forwardto reduce tension between Russia and Ukraine.
Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to mediate come as the United States announced on Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come “at any time“. Charges described asProvocation” by the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov while US President Joe Biden also spoke on Saturday with Vladimir Putin for nearly an hour.
US President Joe Biden has warned his Russian counterpart of “severe and rapid repercussions” Moscow would suffer if attacked by Ukraine. The United States and its allies “will respond resolutely and impose severe and swift repercussions on Russia” if the latter invades Ukraine, the US executive said.
The United States, like many other Western nations, asked its nationals on Friday to leave Ukraine. As a sign of the growing tension, the Americans have decided to keep only the essential staff of their embassy in Kiev.
The head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, maintained that the diplomatic way remainedopenedin order to avoid a conflict in Ukraine but that it would nevertheless require a “de-escalationfrom Moscow. At the same time, the Pentagon ordered the withdrawal of the 160 American soldiers who were training the Ukrainian forces in order to “reposition elsewhere in Europe”.
Update at 7:55 p.m. with the end of the Biden Putin discussion.