Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron and the head of the German government, Olaf Scholz, discussed the war in Ukraine again on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the day after the European summit in Versailles (west of Paris), the French presidency announced. .
The call, which began around 12:00 (11:00 GMT) ended around 2:00 p.m., the French presidency said, adding that Macron had previously spoken with Zelensky.
In a video released by the Ukrainian presidency, Volodimir Zelenski asked the French and German leaders on Saturday to help free the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who according to Kiev had been kidnapped the day before.
The three leaders had already spoken by phone on Thursday, in a conversation in which France and Germany “demanded Russia for an immediate ceasefire.”
Emmanuel Macron, who was received by Putin in the Kremlin on February 7, has already met nine times by phone with the Russian leader, according to the French presidency.
Meeting at a summit in Versailles, near Paris, Europeans stepped up pressure on Russia on Friday to end its military offensive, threatening “massive” new sanctions against Moscow and announcing an increase in arms funding for Ukraine.
Macron did not rule out that the European Union may take significant sanctions against Russian oil and gas in the future, something that has been ruled out until now due to the significant cost it would entail for European countries, highly dependent on Russian hydrocarbons.
