Tensions remain high in eastern Ukraine, but all parties agreed on Sunday, February 20, on the need to continue diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the conflict. After separate telephone exchanges with French President Emmanuel Macron, his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky both said they were ready to continue the talks.
While the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, repeated on Sunday that Russia was ” regarding “ to invade Ukraine, Mr. Macron attempted “the last possible and necessary efforts to avoid a major conflict in Ukraine”following a meeting in the Kremlin with Mr. Putin on February 7.
After talking for the first time by telephone with his Russian counterpart on Sunday followingnoon for nearly two hours, the French president once more had Mr. Putin online for an hour, this time in the evening. following speaking to US President Joe Biden, the Elysée announced.
After the first telephone conversation between MM. Macron and Putin, “The two heads of state, it is very important, have agreed on the need to restore the ceasefire”, explained Paris. Mr. Putin has said he wants « intensifier » diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The two leaders also said they were in favor of resuming work in the “Normandy format” – a four-country diplomatic configuration adopted during the Donbass war (Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France) – on the basis of recent Ukrainian proposals.
“Every day that passes without war is a day won for peace. Our concern is deep, but we believe that the resources of diplomacy are not exhausted. The ball is in Mr. Putin’s court”according to advisers to Mr. Macron.
Also speaking with the French president on the telephone, Mr. Zelensky himself denounced the “provocative shots” rebels sponsored by Moscow. He called for the resumption of negotiations with Russia under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and for the establishment of a “immediate ceasefire”.
Resurgence of fighting in eastern Ukraine
On Sunday, as the intensity of the fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists redoubled, Mr Putin blamed this outbreak of violence on « provocations » Ukrainians. The day before, the separatists ordered the evacuation of civilians and the mobilization of men able to fight.
Westerners fear that the resurgence of fighting that has punctuated the front line in eastern Ukraine for two days will serve as a pretext for Russia, which has massed 150,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian borders, to launch an attack once morest its neighbor . Following in the footsteps of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which have said they fear a “Massive attack”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured Sunday that Russia was preparing “what might be the biggest war in Europe since 1945”.
Earlier Sunday, Belarus, an ally of Moscow, had announced that the approximately 30,000 Russian soldiers present on its territory, according to the count of the United States, and who were to leave this Sunday, would remain for other military exercises. That “force inspection” continues, according to Minsk, due to renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Despite this announcement, the Elysée insisted that Mr. Putin had repeated to Mr. Macron « [son] intention to withdraw [ses] troops » from Belarus “at the end of the current financial years”. “We will have to check all this, it may take a little time”specified the French presidency.
Biden ready to meet Putin
Moscow still denies any plan to invade Ukraine, but demands guarantees for its security, including the promise that the country will never integrate NATO and the end of the reinforcement of Alliance forces on its borders . So many requests that Westerners have rejected.
Mr. Putin once more insisted on this point with Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, calling on Washington and NATO to ” take seriously “ Russian demands.
The President of the French Republic must now meet with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, “in the next few hours”. The heads of Russian and French diplomats, Sergei Lavrov and Jean-Yves Le Drian, will meet on Monday, according to Moscow.
Mr. Biden himself convened his National Security Council for a crisis meeting on Sunday evening. The American president said, through his Secretary of State, Mr. Blinken, that he was ready to meet Mr. Putin. A sign that the diplomatic channel remains open, MM. Blinken and Lavrov are due to meet on February 24. Diplomacy is possible “until the tanks are actually in motion”, Mr. Blinken said on Sunday.