The escalation of tensions in Ukraine, whose fault is it? To Ukrainian “provocations”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday following an exchange with Emmanuel Macron. In what looks like an attempt at negotiations, the French president called immediately followingwards with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he had already spoken for fifty minutes the day before.
According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin also asked, during this telephone conversation with his French counterpart, that NATO and the United States “take seriously” Russia’s demands concerning its security, at the heart of the current crisis between Moscow and the West.
The ceasefire on the table
On the French side, the Elysée estimated, following the telephone exchange, that like Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Poutine agrees to try to reach a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Just like the Ukrainian president who, on Twitter, shared it a few minutes following his phone call with Emmanuel Macron. “We call for the urgent convening of a meeting of the trilateral contact group (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) and the establishment of an immediate ceasefire,” Volodymyr Zelensky said. OSCE monitors reporting more than 1,500 ceasefire violations between Thursday and Friday, a record this year.
Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin also agreed on “the need to favor a diplomatic solution to the current crisis and to do everything to achieve it”. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian “will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov” in the coming days, reports the Elysée.
On the side of the United States, we also want to play the negotiations… while continuing to affirm Russia is “on the point” of invading Ukraine. US President Joe Biden has thus said he is ready to “meet” his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “at any time, regardless of the format if it helps to avoid a war” in Ukraine, his head of diplomacy said on Sunday. Anthony Blinken on CBS. The Secretary of State also reaffirmed that the diplomatic route was still possible “until the tanks are really in motion and the planes in the sky”.