The French president continues to make shock statements following Vladimir Putin's decision to mobilize some of his reservists in Ukraine.
"Our duty is to hold our line" in the face of "blackmail" by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with the BFMTV channel.
“Today there is an escalation which is taken by Russia, in several respects: the partial mobilization (…) and this belligerent discourse, this threat, which is intended to intimidate or remind us that Russia is a power endowed [ of nuclear weapons]", declared the French head of state.
“In this context, our duty is to hold our line, that is to say to help Ukraine as we do, to protect its territory, never to be able to attack Russia.
We are not at war with Russia,” he continued.
"It's blackmail"
Russia's announcement of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists and its threat to resort to nuclear weapons, "obviously, it's blackmail, obviously it has these weapons and the risk is still there.
And it's a way to put pressure at a difficult time in this war, ”said Emmanuel Macron.
But "I will not make any interpretation or have any comments that would be part of an escalation," he insisted.
Paris refuses to make "political fiction"
“France is a reasonable nuclear power (…).
In general it's never good to do political fiction, and in particular on this subject (…) because we are caught in the game of an escalation by saying "if this happens, then I will do that" .
No, ”said Emmanuel Macron again.
"We want to obtain the result that we have been pursuing from the start, that Ukraine can resist, restore its sovereignty, that Ukraine and Russia get back around the negotiating table," he said. .
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