Bouassi – AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out, on Monday, the possibility of reaching in the coming days or weeks a real solution to the conflict in Ukraine through negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, suggesting that the war would continue.
“European countries will not be directly involved in the conflict, because a war with Russia will be a global war with a power that possesses nuclear weapons,” Macron said during his first tour since announcing the upcoming French presidential election.
“In the short term, the war will continue,” he said, ruling out a real negotiated solution in the coming days or weeks, adding, “I hope a solution will be found and we will do everything we can to help in that.”
Macron acknowledged that “the discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin is difficult, because he refuses a ceasefire,” stressing that this is a prerequisite for any real dialogue between Moscow and Kiev.
The French president considered that “our responsibility requires that we continue to communicate with the Russian and Belarusian peoples and with the leaders of the two countries, and that we always respect Russia as a country, because there is no sustainable peace if it does not include the peace structure in Russia.”
“We are very impressed by the resistance of the Ukrainian people, its leaders and its president,” Macron added.
He stressed that France “will have a share in terms of receiving, caring, harboring and integrating Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country.”
“We must be prepared to receive them and to enable them to learn our language as quickly as possible and to work or learn,” he added. These are things we have to do together. We will reach this in our spirit of solidarity.”
