The two heads of state spoke by phone on Tuesday for the first time since the discovery of atrocities at Boutcha. More than obtaining a simple ceasefire, the French president wants to secure in the long term the situation of Ukraine and Europe.
by and
The telephone conversation lasted just over two hours. Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin returned, Tuesday, May 3, the thread of an interrupted dialogue since the discovery of the atrocities committed on civilians in the localities of the kyiv region, like Boutcha, abandoned by Russian troops at the end of March. It was the tenth conversation between the two leaders since the start of the “special operation” launched by the Kremlin in Ukraine, on February 24, while Russia, after having given up taking control of the Ukrainian capital, Pinon the Donbass and besiege Marioupol for more than two months. The Head of State has also, according to a brief communicating from the Elysée, “called Russia to allow the continuation of the evacuations of the Azovstal factory started in recent days”.
More broadly, the call occurs while Emmanuel Macron, just re -elected on April 24, seeks to take over the initiative, without making the slightest illusion, basically, on the intentions of Mr. Putin. Reinvested Saturday, May 7, the President of the Republic, who does not exclude a possible visit to kyiv, must specify on Monday in Strasbourg his views of the Ukrainian conflict. He should then approach the subject with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, during a visit to Berlin, probably the next day.
To date, Westerners, including France, are rather to intensify their deliveries of heavy weapons to Ukraine. The United States is clearly at the forefront in this area, the European capitals being more cautious, less equipped, even divided on the subject-Hungary still refuses any transit of weapons on its territory. Mr. Macron knows that the conflict will be largely played in the plains of Donbass, but he still intends to prepare the ground for a “negotiated solution”, likely to secure the fate of Ukraine and that of the European continent as a whole . An insistence which can contrast with certain allies, which give priority to a military solution, at a time when Ukrainian officials consider themselves to be able to reverse the course of things, or even take over. >
The accusations of the Kremlin
If weapons had to be silent one day, in an still improbable horizon, the Elysée does not want to be satisfied with a possible ceasefire, a simple armistice, and wants to project itself on a “peace negotiated “. Paris thus reflects on “security guarantees” to set up in favor of kyiv in exchange for his “neutrality”, that is to say of its renunciation to integrate NATO, one of the main objectives of the Kremlin in this case .
You have 57.6% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.