As Ukrainian and Russian delegations met for direct talks in Belarus, telephone diplomacy aimed at ending Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his neighboring country also continued at the highest level on Thursday.
Putin called French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the situation — their third call since the invasion started on February 24.
The conversation followed Macron’s address to the French public Wednesday night, in which he called Putin’s claims that he was combating “Nazism” in Ukraine a lie.
The Kremlin said Putin told Macron during their “frank exchange” that he could not agree with him on that point.
A close advisor to Macron said the French president was “not optimistic” after his hour-and-a-half-long phone call with Putin.
“There is nothing reassuring in what he [Putin] said today,” the advisor told reporters in Paris, adding that it was clear to Macron from the conversation that “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine.
Sources at Macron’s office said Putin had made it clear that he wants all of Ukraine to be under Russia’s control. One source said Macron told Putin to stop lying to himself, saying: “Either, you are telling yourself stories, or you are looking for a pretext. Either way, what you are telling me is not in line with reality and cannot justify either the current violence, nor the fact that your country will pay dearly because it will end up isolated, weakened, and under sanctions for a very long time.”
But the sources insisted there was no tension between the two leaders as they spoke, noting that Macron had used the familiar “tu” for “you” when addressing Putin, rather than the formal “vous.” Putin also used the informal pronoun, they said.
The sources added that Macron was keen to keep the dialog going “in order to save lives, and to obtain humanitarian concessions” from Russia.
That, despite Putin’s insistence on Thursday that he will continue his offensive against Ukraine until he rids it of a government he claims is run by “neo-Nazis” and criminals.