RUSSIA says Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu discussed potential talks on the Ukraine conflict during a rare phone call on Wednesday, a claim immediately rejected by Paris.
The unexpected call, which Moscow claims was initiated by France, marks a rare example of high-level contact between the two countries, whose relations have been strained by the Ukraine war of the past two years.
“Readiness for dialogue regarding Ukraine was noted. The starting point might be based on the Istanbul peace initiative,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement regarding the call.
However, there was no further explanation as to what was meant, and sources close to Lecornu immediately denied that any such conversation took place.
“France has not accepted or proposed anything similar” regarding the conflict, the source told AFP.
The French defense ministry acknowledged the two discussed Ukraine, but stressed Lecornu reiterated France’s support for Kyiv’s fight once morest Russia.
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NATO member Turkey said last month it was ready to once more host a peace summit between the warring sides, but Kyiv rejected the idea of negotiating directly with Moscow.
Ankara first hosted peace talks in the weeks following Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
Contacts between senior Russian officials close to President Vladimir Putin and top ministers from European powers have been rare in the two years since Russia’s invasion.
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Both sides said they discussed last month’s deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow, claimed by the Islamic State and widely condemned by Western countries.
Lecornu told Shoigu that France was always ready to confront “terrorism” and was ready for “enhanced exchanges with the aim of countering this threat as effectively as possible”, the French defense ministry said.
The French minister reiterated France’s “firm condonation and solidarity with the victims and their families”, adding that he “also unequivocally condemns the war of aggression waged by Russia in Ukraine”.
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According to a Russian defense ministry statement, Shoigu said he hoped France would not be involved in the attack.
“The Kyiv regime does not do anything without the approval of Western curators. We believe that in this case, French special agents were not behind it,” Shoigu was quoted as saying.
The Kremlin has pushed a Western and Ukrainian narrative linked to the attackers, an idea that has been denounced as absurd by the US and Kyiv.
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Lecornu said France had no information to establish ties with Ukraine, asking Moscow “to stop any instrumentalization” of the attack, the French defense ministry said.
Putin has acknowledged “radical Islamists” carried out the attacks in Moscow that killed at least 144 people, but suggested they were linked to Kyiv.
Shoigu separately rebuked Paris for suggesting that Western soldiers might be sent to Ukraine, following French President Emmanuel Macron in February refused to rule out the possibility of sending troops into the field.
“Regarding the Elysee Palace’s statement regarding sending a French contingent to Ukraine, Sergei Shoigu pointed out that if realized in practice, it would create problems for France itself,” the Russian defense ministry said. (AFP/Z-3)
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