MOSCOW — French
President
Emmanuel Macron said Monday he hoped to make a start towards a
de-escalation of tensions over Ukraine, as he began talks with Russian
President
Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
اضافة اعلان
Macron flew into Moscow at the start of a
week of intense Western diplomacy aimed at easing fears of a Russian invasion
of its pro-Western neighbor.
Sitting across a long table from Putin at
the Kremlin, Macron said he was in Moscow to address the "critical
situation" in Europe.
"This discussion can make a start in
the direction in which we need to go, which is towards a de-escalation,"
Macron said, calling for "an answer that is useful for both Russia and for
all the rest of Europe".
Welcoming Macron as "dear
Emmanuel", Putin said
Russia and
France have "shared concerns
regarding security in Europe" and hailed "how much effort the current
French leadership is making" to resolve these concerns.
With tens of thousands of Russian troops
camped near the Ukrainian border, Macron was the first top Western leader to
meet Putin since the crisis began in December.
German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz was due to
meet Monday with US President Joe Biden in Washington, as Western leaders look
to maintain a united front in their biggest showdown with Russia since the end
of the Cold War.
Russia denies invasion plans
US officials say Moscow has assembled
110,000 troops near the border with Ukraine and is on track to amass a large
enough force — some 150,000 soldiers — for a full-scale invasion by
mid-February.
Russia insists it has no plans to attack and
has instead put forward its own demands for security guarantees that it says
would ease tensions.
Macron, who will go on to Kyiv Tuesday for
talks with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky, told reporters on his plane
from Paris that he was "reasonably" optimistic going into the talks.
He did not expect a solution to the crisis
in the "short term", he said, but he was ready to take Russia's
security concerns seriously.
Moscow has accused the West, in particular
Washington and NATO, of ignoring what it says are legitimate concerns for its
security.
It is demanding a permanent ban on
Ukraine,
a former Soviet republic, joining the US-led alliance and that the bloc roll
back its military presence in Eastern Europe.
Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov said
Monday's talks between Macron and Putin were "very important" but
suggested no one should expect a major step forward.
"The situation is too complex to expect
decisive breakthroughs in one meeting," Peskov told reporters.
Macron, whose country currently heads the EU
and who is facing a re-election challenge in April, has tried to position
himself as the key EU figure in negotiations with Russia.
He has spoken to Putin by phone several
times over the past week and held a 40-minute call with
Biden on Sunday.
Macron is expected to try to push forward a stalled
peace plan for the festering conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern
Ukraine, and could make offers to Russia for consultations on arms control and
NATO expansion.
Ukrainian 'red lines'
Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Dmytro Kuleba told reporters that Kyiv would not budge on its "red lines" in the
conflict by giving up any territory or agreeing to direct talks with the
separatists.
"Ukraine is approaching this process ...
with a clear understanding of our red lines and without any desire and
readiness to make any concessions that will be unacceptable to us," he
told reporters.
Biden has reacted to the Russian troop
build-up by offering 3,000 American forces to bolster
NATO's eastern flank,
with a batch of the troops arriving in Poland on Sunday.
Britain said Monday that 350 more British
troops would be sent to the Polish border and Germany announced that another
350 of its soldiers would go to Lithuania.
While Scholz is in Washington, his foreign
minister, Annalena Baerbock, was in Kyiv along with her Czech, Slovak and
Austrian counterparts for a two-day visit.
Kuleba told a joint press conference with
Baerbock that Ukraine and its Western allies would never be divided.
"No one, no matter how hard anyone
tries in Russia, will be able to drive a wedge between Ukraine and its
partners," he said.
Scholz himself will be in Moscow and Kyiv
next week for talks with Putin and Zelensky.
Visits to Moscow by the British foreign and
defense secretaries are also expected at the end of this week.
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