The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, distanced himself this Sunday from the statements of his American counterpart, Joe Biden, who described the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, as a “butcher”, and argued that “everything” must be done to avoid an escalation in this conflict.
“I would not use those words,” said the French head of state on the France 3 network.
The also candidate for re-election in April maintained that “everything must be done to make the situation slide”: “I keep talking to President Putin because what do we want to do collectively? We want to stop the war that Russia has launched, without making war and no escalation.
Macron stressed the importance of not falling into this escalation, “neither in action nor in word”, and advocated diplomatic means to achieve a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
“Geographically, those of us who are facing Russia are Europeans. The United States is an ally within the framework of NATO with which we share many values, but those of us who live together with Russia are Europeans,” he recalled.
The French president, who since the beginning of the war on February 24 has maintained regular telephone contact with both Putin and the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, specified that he will speak again tomorrow or Tuesday with the Russian president to organize “in the best conditions” an evacuation operation from besieged Mariupol, in southern Ukraine.
