Russian invasion: "Helping Ukraine is an absolute priority", assures Pierre Conesa

Solène Leroux 9:21 a.m., June 7, 2022, modified at 9:23 a.m., June 7, 2022

Pierre Conesa, essayist and former senior civil servant, was Sonia Mabrouk's guest on Tuesday morning on Europe 1. "Helping Ukraine is an absolute priority, the whole question, of course, is: how far and how?" , he asked.

Like Emmanuel Macron, the essayist considers that Russia should not be humiliated.

"The president's idea is to say that in any case, we will have to negotiate with [the Russian president], according to terms that must be defined with the Ukrainians."

Negotiations, to avoid a situation like Germany after the First World War.

>> Find the interview every morning at 8:13 a.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

The First World War "ends by saying: 'Germany will pay'".

However, "Germany considered that it was as responsible as France for the outbreak of this conflict".

There followed "years of humiliation and misery" until "finally, they brought to power a dictator who promised to restore their dignity", he recalls.

For him, to avoid a similar situation, we must rather help the "enemy" to reconstitute itself.

Putin has "a form of restraint" in Ukraine

The former senior official believes that the current conflict in Ukraine is "a limited war" geographically.

"It's hard to hear, but it's true that [Vladimir Putin] doesn't bombard kyiv with his air superiority."

According to Pierre Conesa, this shows that there is "a form of restraint at home".

Currently, "it is estimated that there are about 150,000 to 160,000 Russian troops in Ukraine," he said, comparing with the war in Afghanistan where Soviet troops had about 400,000 troops there.