The meeting between the French and Russian presidents started Monday around 4:30 pm. Mr. Putin has welcomed French efforts “to resolve the issue of security in Europe” by welcoming Mr. Macron to Kremlin.
Le Monde with AFP
Emmanuel Macron said, Monday, February 7, he hoped to “begin” a “de-escalation” in the Russian-Western crisis about Ukraine, during the first minutes of his meeting in Moscow with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
The French President added want to “start building a useful response collectively for Russia and for all the rest of Europe”. According to Macron, this “useful answer” aims to “avoid the war” between Russia and Ukraine and “build confidence, stability, visibility for everyone”. He also ruled that the current situation in Europe was “critical” and imposed “to be extremely responsible”.
m. Putin has estimated that Russia and France had “common concerns about security in Europe”. He welcomed the “efforts (…) made by the French authorities to resolve the issue of security in Europe”, including the one to “find a settlement to the crisis” in Ukraine.
The meeting between the French and Russian presidents started around 4:30 pm (Paris time), according to images broadcast by Russian television, the two leaders sitting on either side of a very long white table because of the pandemic.
Beginning of Putin-Macron Maintenance in Kremlin. https://t.co/ovje9bjx1b
British and German military deployments
The French President has multiplied in recent days telephone interviews with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, as well as with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, in order to play the mediators in the Ukrainian crisis. Tuesday, Mr. Macron will go to Ukraine to speak with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The voltage remains live in recent hours. Monday, the United Kingdom announced the sending of 350 additional soldiers to Poland. These troops will be added to the 100 British soldiers already present in the country, which had been sent to the influx of migrants at the Polish border with Belarus. For its part, Germany will send 350 additional soldiers to Lithuania as part of a NATO operation.
These military deployments intervene in a context of increasing fears that Russia is preparing for invading Ukraine, the West accusing Mr Putin for massaging more than 100,000 soldiers at the border between the two countries.
Russia denies having the intention of invading its neighbor, but required the West of significant security guarantees, including Ukraine is not allowed to join NATO.