For the French government, Vladimir Putin did not put any “realistic” conditions for a cease-fire in Ukraine
At the end of the Council of Ministers, Sophie Primas, the government spokesperson, returned to the telephone interview between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. “Vladimir Putin has put conditions that do not seem realistic, in any case for Europeans and for Ukrainians, in particular the cessation of any support of Westerners to Ukraine”she added. “There is still a long way to do”she said after this telephone call and the announcement of a partial truce on the strikes on energy infrastructure.
Emmanuel Macron and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had first offered a one-month truce in the air, on the seas and against energy infrastructure, before the United States and Ukraine formulate a common offer of thirty-day ceasefire, which was therefore not taken up at the end of the Trump-Putine call.
Sophie Primas questioned the reality of this partial truce, recalling that “This night of energy infrastructure was bombed in Ukraine by the Russian armed forces”.
More generally, “A phone call between President Trump and President Putin cannot be concluded with an agreement as long as the Ukrainians themselves are not in the discussion and as long as Europeans are not in the discussion”she insisted.
To this end, Mr. Macron “Has daily calls and conversations with President Trump and President Zelensky and also with his European counterparts”she said.
According to his entourage, the French president again spoke with Donald Trump after the American-Russian call on Tuesday. At the Elysée, there is a certain ” caution “claiming that the Ukrainians be associated with the discussions, while considering that everything that can promote peace must be undertaken.
Source: Lemonde