Macron: Putin wants Ukraine’s surrender not peace with it!
French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “doesn’t want peace” with Ukraine but rather wants it to “surrender,” following a video meeting with the “coalition of the willing” supporting Kyiv.
“Do I believe that President Putin wants peace? If you want my firm conviction, the answer is no… He wants Ukraine to surrender… That’s what he proposed,” Macron said, emphasizing that he wants “a solid and lasting peace, that is, a peace that respects international law… that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states”.
On the other hand, he believed that US President Donald Trump was seeking peace between Russia and Ukraine.
On the eve of his participation with a number of European leaders in a meeting between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Washington, Macron added, “Our desire is to form a united front between the Europeans and the Ukrainians,” and to ask the Americans “to what extent” they are prepared to contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine in a potential peace agreement.
The issue of security guarantees for Ukraine is a focal point in discussions about a possible peace agreement, as it aims to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.
The French president expressed caution about Trump’s proposal to grant Ukraine protection similar to that provided for by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), without it becoming a member of the alliance.
He said, “I believe that the theoretical proposal isn’t enough. The point is the substance”.
Macron emphasized that “discussions about Ukrainian territory cannot be held without Ukrainians…just as discussions about European security cannot be held without them,” calling for Europeans to be invited to any future summit on Ukraine.
“We will go tomorrow (to Washington) not only to accompany the Ukrainian president, but we will go there to defend the interests of the Europeans,” he continued.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded to Macron’s comments about Ukraine’s “surrender,” accusing him of telling “lies”.
She added via Telegram that Moscow had offered a “peaceful settlement” to the seven-year conflict under the Minsk agreements, which followed Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv and Moscow-backed separatists.
Zakharova also criticized Macron for dangling the possibility of “victory on the battlefield, knowing full well that its impossible,” supplying Ukraine with more weapons, and making “false promises to the Ukrainians”.
