Macron urged to do everything for Ukraine and Russia to return to the negotiating table

France must do everything so that Ukraine and Russia return to the negotiating table, declared President Emmanuel Macron in an interview with BFMTV.

“I will not voice any interpretation of the developments in Ukraine, nor any statements that could exacerbate the escalation. I think that today we must do everything so that at the moment chosen by the parties involved, when Ukraine is able to do this, the parties return to the negotiating table,” the French president said.

According to him, the negotiations should take into account the demands put forward by Ukraine, including the restoration of state borders “at least in the form in which they existed in February.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov the day before declaredthat the United States and Great Britain were afraid of possible agreements between Russia and Ukraine, therefore they forbade Kyiv to negotiate. “Washington is not interested in establishing peace and tranquility in Ukraine. This became clear back in March, when Moscow and Kyiv came close to reaching mutual agreements,” the diplomat said.

Since the beginning of the special operation, Russia and Ukraine have held negotiations several times. The first three face-to-face meetings took place in Belarus in February-March, and the fourth round of the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue was held on March 29 in Istanbul. Later the process was frozen. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, Ukraine actually withdrew from the negotiations.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country would not hold talks with Russia, and other high-ranking Ukrainian politicians made similar statements. Later, Zelensky announced that in the event of a referendum, Ukraine would refuse to negotiate with Russia.

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