Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, has said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has given personal assurances in their epic negotiations that Kremlin wouldn’t further worsen the crisis over the Russia-Ukraine border.
French President’s notes on a Tuesday’s visit to Ukraine came as Moscow rejected the assessment that he and the Russian leader came to an agreement on reducing tensions. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin Press Secretary, said that in the present circumstances, Paris and Moscow couldn’t be striking any deal. Moreover, Macron said Tuesday that their wish for the subsequent months is for the circumstances to even out and for them to be capable to re-absorb through updated guarantee mechanisms.
Furthermore, the President of France met the Ukrainian leader due to rising concerns of a potential Moscow invasion into the onetime Soviet Republic. The Kremlin has accumulated several thousands of military personnel and military equipment along the Eastern border, but asserts it has no intentions to invade the East European country.
Russia demands assurances from European powers that North Atlantic Alliance wouldn’t agree to take Ukraine and other post-Soviet states as alliance members, and that the intergovernmental organization will avert weapon deployments. The Kremlin also wants guarantees to roll back its troops from the East European region.
Macron says Putin told him #Russia won’t escalate near #Ukraine. Putin is the one who started what Macron calls a crisis, which in fact is a war between Russia and Ukraine. It was Putin who ordered the occupation of #Crimea in 2014, it was Putin who sent troops to Donbas.
— Alexander Khrebet/Олександр Хребет (@AlexKhrebet) February 8, 2022
“won’t be behind any escalation”
Moreover, the French President said he thought measures could be taken to reduce the tensions and called on all parties to stay relaxed. Macron said that both Kyiv and Moscow had told him they’re loyal to the principles of a 2014 peace deal known as Minsk Accords, adding that this agreement, provided a way to resolve their ongoing disagreements.
In the meantime, Moscow’s increased military presence along the border with Ukraine remains unabated. On Tuesday, six Russian war vessels headed toward the Black Sea from the Mediterranean Sea for naval exercises. Russia has stationed more than 0.1M military personnel along the Ukrainian border. In addition, Moscow deployed 20000 in the neighboring landlocked country of Belarus, where they’re participating in joint military drills. Europe fears an attack could be looming, but Kremlin rejects it has such intentions.
Emmanuel Macron said that he was presented with personal assurances from the Russian leader during their Monday’s meeting in Moscow. He said that on the negotiations on security and military aspects, as he’s already said apparently, they’ve had exchanges with Mr. Putin, and he told him that he’d not be close on any escalation, adding he thinks that’s important.
However, Peskov disputed that the Russian President had given any assurances over closing military drills near the Ukraine border.