French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Ukraine crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin for one hour and 40 minutes in a phone call on Saturday, the Elysee Palace said.
According to an AFP source in the French president’s administration, "the conversation focused on prospects for reducing tensions in the crisis around Ukraine."
In the follow-up to the discussions during President Macron’s recent visit to Moscow, the two leaders had an in-depth exchange of opinions on the issues related to ensuring long-term legal security guarantees for the Russian Federation and overcoming the stalemate in settling the intra-Ukrainian conflict, including in view of Emmanuel Macron’s conversations with the leaders of Ukraine, the United States and a number of European states, the Kremlin press service said.
“Vladimir Putin once again drew attention to the absence of a substantive response from the United States and NATO to the Russian initiatives. He also stressed the reluctance of the leading Western powers to prompt the Kiev authorities to implement the Minsk agreements, which was demonstrated again by the futility of the February 10 round of consultations in Berlin between political advisors to the Normandy format leaders,” the statement reads.
Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron also discussed the situation concerning provocative speculations regarding the allegedly planned Russian “invasion” of Ukraine, which is accompanied by massive supplies of modern weaponry to Ukraine, thus creating conditions for possible aggressive actions by the Ukrainian military in Donbass.
