Emmanuel Macron wants to have a "pivotal role" in the Ukrainian crisis.
After having multiplied the calls to the various protagonists, it is now moving up a gear.
The French president will meet Vladimir Putin on Monday in Moscow then his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday in Kiev.
The objective: to weigh in the balance and encourage de-escalation as Western countries fear a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
These two interviews will take place face-to-face, said the Elysée, but “in coordination with European partners”.
A "pretext" to invade Ukraine
Emmanuel Macron and his advisers have also spoken with several of their European counterparts on the telephone in recent days, recalls the French presidency.
The tension remains high in recent hours, Washington having assured Thursday to have evidence – without having presented it – that Moscow was preparing a video of a fake Ukrainian attack, a pretext to invade Ukraine.
However, Kiev is more measured, the Minister of Defense, Oleksiï Reznikov, judging "low" Thursday the risk of a "significant escalation" of the conflict.
Putting the European Union back in the center
Emmanuel Macron has already spoken in turn with Vladimir Poutine then Volodymyr Zelensky.
The French and Russian presidents notably discussed on Thursday the "security guarantees" demanded by Moscow, during their third telephone conversation of the week on this subject, the Kremlin said, referring to "a constructive dialogue".
While the EU seemed to count very little during the first Russian-American discussions on Ukraine, the French president has been trying for weeks to put Europe back into the game, which he has been advocating for years and not without difficulty. 'strategic autonomy'.
France's "pivotal role"
The last meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Poutine dates back to the summer of 2019, when the French president invited him to Fort de Brégançon, in the south of France.
The French president was to go see him in Moscow in the spring of 2020 but his visit had been postponed due to the health crisis.
"France is destined to play a pivotal role in multilateralism and in efforts towards de-escalation," government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of a trip to Indre-et-Loire.
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World
Ukraine-Russia conflict: For Washington, Moscow wants to create a pretext to attack Ukraine
Vladimir Poutine
Ukraine
World
Russia
Emmanuel Macron
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