A “unilateral violation of Russia’s international commitments and an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty. Emmanuel Macron condemned Monday evening the recognition of the independence of the separatist regions by Moscow following a Defense Council convened urgently. According to a press release from the Elysée, the French president is asking for “targeted European sanctions” as well as an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Moreover, following Vladimir Putin’s announcement to send the Russian army to the separatist territories, the Elysée made it known that Paris did not exclude new Russian “military facts” and denounced the leader’s “ideological drift”. .
Emmanuel Macron has been struggling to mediate between Russia and the United States for days. During the night from Sunday to Monday, the Presidency of the Republic even thought it had done the hardest part by hinting at the possibility of a Putin-Biden meeting in the coming days on the occasion of a summit potentially synonymous with de-escalation. Scenario denied in the hours that followed by the Kremlin. “There is an agreement on the fact of having to continue the dialogue. Talking regarding concrete plans for organizing summits is premature,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. A blow for the French head of state.
“We are making our last efforts, our most intense efforts to avoid the worst (…), this is what the President of the Republic has been working on over the weekend”, defended himself yesterday, in late morning, his entourage, while thinking that a summit between the Russian and American presidents was still “possible” according to Vladimir Putin’s intentions.
“The situation remains very dangerous”
But the latter’s announcement, in a very long speech, to recognize once morest all odds the independence of the pro-Russian separatist regions of eastern Ukraine has dampened Western hopes. It is moreover this decision which prompted the French Head of State to convene a Defense Council to take stock of this new situation, before making a joint call with President Biden and Chancellor Scholz to consider a hardening of your tone vis-à-vis Russia.
VIDEO. Putin recognizes the independence of separatist states
A few hours earlier, the European Union, which has repeatedly threatened to impose heavy economic sanctions once morest Moscow in the event of military aggression, had already said that it was “ready to act” if the Russian president followed the path of acknowledgement. In short, “the situation remains very dangerous” and all parties are advancing on “a crest path”, admits an adviser to Emmanuel Macron. This Monday evening, the Elysée did not hide its concern: “We have probably not seen everything yet, we are preparing for all the hypotheses”.
Because the Elysian advisers have warned insistently that “serious things” and new “military facts” might still happen in Ukraine. “There is no harm in imagining that it might happen even worse. Vladimir Putin can still make a lot of decisions regarding Donbass or the rest of Ukraine,” they repeated.
For them, the Russian president is apparently no longer reliable. He is in “a kind of ideological and security drift”, they believe, and held an “accusatory but also rigid and paranoid” speech on Monday.