Russian President Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday that his offensive on Ukraine is going according to plan and will intensify unless that country accepts its conditions, including its demilitarization, they indicated sources of the Elysee.
The telephone conversation took place at the request of Putin and in it the Russian leader warned that if the Ukrainians do not accept his terms through political-diplomatic means, Russia will get them through the military.
Macron, according to the sources, told him that he was making a serious mistake, that he was looking for pretexts and that his actions were not in line with reality and could not justify his violence and the price his country is going to pay, which will end up isolated, weakened and under sanctions for a long period of time.
The French head of state extracted from that telephone exchange that “the worst is yet to come”, given Putin’s determination and his argument of blaming Ukraine as the trigger for his operation due to the non-compliance, in the opinion of the Russian leader, of the agreements on Minsk peace.
From the Elysee it was admitted that although the talk was tense on the substance, the dialogue was frank and there is an intention to maintain contact in the future because both leaders “can say strong things without breaking the conversation.”
Macron again demanded that Putin put an end to the military offensive and asked him to guarantee the physical integrity of both the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelensky, his relatives and all civilians in the country. Putin assured that civilians are not a military target.
The conversation took place on the same day that new negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are planned in the Belarusian region of Brest.
Putin, according to French sources, assures that the Ukrainians are committing war crimes and are behaving like Nazis, which is why, although he says he is open to negotiation, he plans to go all the way, until he takes control of the entire country.
Despite the sanctions against Russia already imposed by the international community, France believes that there is still room to tighten the siege on Russia with more support for Ukraine, initiatives with those who can put pressure on Putin or new economic or diplomatic measures.
Their bilateral conversation was followed by another between Macron and Zelensky, in which the French president explained the Russian president’s conditions and the Ukrainian president maintained that they will not surrender.