French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was covert when talking to him by phone shortly before the announcement of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, made on Thursday morning (24) and followed by the movement of troops in Ukrainian territory.
“Yes, he was covert and yes, there was a deliberate and conscious choice by President Putin to launch the war while we could still negotiate peace,” Macron told a news conference alongside Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, President of the European Council.
The conversation between the two leaders took place just hours before Putin launched the offensive on Ukrainian territory under the justification of maintaining the security of Russians living in the Donbass region, in eastern Ukraine.
The invasion, however, also took place in the north, towards the capital Kiev, and bombings took place in the south of the country, in the port cities of Mariupol and Odessa, close to Crimea, a region that Putin had already annexed in 2014. Kiev and NATO (Western military alliance), from the beginning of the action, they spoke of a total invasion of Ukrainian territory.
The Frenchman also said that the conversation with Putin was “frank, direct and fast”, and that the call also took place at the request of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who would not have been able to reach the Russian.
At the press conference, Macron expressed solidarity with Ukraine, and said that European Union sanctions would be followed by national sanctions by France.
He said he would offer 300 million euros to help Ukraine with military equipment.
Macron was one of the first Western leaders to try to forge a dialogue with Putin in the weeks leading up to the invasion.
His visit to the Kremlin earlier this month, amid a series of diplomatic moves, spawned more memes than actual results, and was marred by the more than five-hour conversation he had with the Russian seated at the far end of a giant coffee table. about 5 meters.
Although the official version has been that the distancing occurred because Macron refused to comply with the strict Russian protocol against Covid, for fear of having his DNA stolen by the Kremlin, the distance between the two symbolized the distance between Russia and the West, which has only increased since then.
