Feb. 8 (UPI) — French President Emmanuel Macron said during a visit to Ukraine on Tuesday that he’d received an assurance from Russian President Vladimir Putin late Monday that he won’t escalate the crisis between Moscow and Kiev.
Macron visited Putin at the Kremlin late on Monday for about five hours, French and Russian officials said. A primary goal of the meeting was for Macron to warn Putin against an invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting is one of the latest developments in the crisis, which has been building for months as Moscow sent more than 100,000 troops near Russia’s border with Ukraine.
NATO and Western powers, including France and the United States, have cautioned Russia against an invasion — a move that some experts and leaders fear is likely, particularly as Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
“We have now the possibility of advancing negotiations,” Macron told reporters in Kiev Tuesday, according to France24.
“I obtained [from Putin] that there will be no degradation nor escalation,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he expects there will soon be a summit with the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany to expand talks.
Although Russian officials acknowledged that the talks between Putin and Macron were “very constructive,” they also noted that the Russian president made no promise about escalating the crisis.
“Given the current situation, Moscow and Paris could not have struck any deals,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to state-run TASS news agency. “It is simply impossible.”
“Substantive relations have been established between Putin and Macron, which allow them to spend a lot of time interacting with each other,” he added. “The presentation of arguments, at least, by our president with regards to our stance, of course, needs time.”
Adding to the crisis in recent days have been the movements of thousands of Russian troops to Belarus, which is an ally to Moscow and also shares a border with Ukraine.
Peskov on Tuesday pledged that the troops are in Belarus to participate in military exercises between Thursday and Feb. 20. After that, he said, the Russian forces in Belarus will return to Russia.
“No one has ever said that Russian troops will remain on the territory of Belarus, this has never been discussed,” Peskov said, according to The Moscow Times.
