While the crisis between Ukraine and Russia rose several notches on Saturday February 19, with several violations of the ceasefire on the border between the two countries and an acceleration of diplomatic consultations between Westerners, it also invites in the presidential campaign in France.
For the LR candidate, Valérie Pécresse, we must hold on to Vladimir Putin’s Russia “a speech of steely firmness”. “If acts of aggression against Ukraine continue, drastic sanctions will be needed. We need dialogue but also a balance of power,” she continued, Saturday morning on France Culture. “Making war on Ukraine is a major mistake, breaking the Minsk agreements is a mistake”, added the candidate for the Elysée, in reference to the agreements signed in 2015 supposed to pacify the separatist east of Ukraine. Corn “if Russia withdraws, everything becomes possible again”, she considered, in particular the prospect of a conference on security in Europe and that of telling Ukraine that its membership of NATO, Moscow’s red line, “not on the agenda”.
“Diplomacy is not done at the last momentfor his part, criticized the candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, on France Inter. This requires having old relationships that have been worked on for years with a head of state. » The latter regrets as well as Emmanuel Macron “twirled about the relationship they said they wanted with Vladimir Putin. He thought it would be more useful to follow in the footsteps of the European Union or NATO”.
Mme Le Pen fears that the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine could “to go very badly without even that each of the parties wishes it, with an event that can change the situation”. For her, the two countries can reach an agreement if several conditions are met: “Let’s admit that Ukraine does not fit into NATO” ; “that Russia definitively leave the Donbass region” ; “that we apply the Minsk agreements” ; “that the integration of Crimea into Russia be recognized” and finally, “ that Ukraine remains an internationally neutral state”.
Exchange between Macron and Putin
For Eric Zemmour, “original fault” of this conflict is “NATO’s expansion to the east for thirty years”, he estimated Sunday morning on CNews and Europe 1. If elected, the Reconquest candidate! would do “everything so that the Minsk agreements are respected and I will have a treaty signed where Ukraine and NATO must commit that Ukraine will never return” in the military institution. For him, this expansion of NATO – an institution he considers “obsolete” and from which he wants to get out – to the countries of the East after the fall of the USSR is “legitimately seen as aggression by Russia”.
On the left, the candidate of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, recalled on France 3 that for him “the French must be non-aligned. This is how you become a credible interlocutor”. According to him, “The Russians must not cross the border with Ukraine and the Americans must not seek to annex Ukraine into NATO”.
Christiane Taubira salutes the action of Emmanuel Macorn who “reason to try the discussion to the end, even if it is most likely unpleasant with the Russian president”. Questioned on BFM-TV at midday on Sunday, the former Minister of Justice regrets, however, ” our diplomatic and anticipation incapacity, our passivity and a tendency to take a certain number of Mr. Putin’s remarks in good faith”. “How do we manage international risks? It is managed upstream, the situation of Russia with Ukraine, it is not a discovery. We have known about the risks for a long time. she regrets.
As for Emmanuel Macron, who had warned that he would announce his decision on a probable presidential candidacy after the “peak of the current geopolitical crisis is behind us”, he exchanged this weekend with the Ukrainian and Russian presidents, Volodymyr Zelenski and Vladimir Putin. After their meeting on February 7 in Moscow, this discussion between the French and Russian leaders constitutes “the last possible and necessary efforts to avoid a major conflict in Ukraine”underlined the Elysée.