At a dialogue conference in Doha today, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian insisted on continuing to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin until he realizes the “very high price of invading Ukraine and accepts negotiations”.
His call came after French President Emmanuel Macron warned against “escalating words and actions in Ukraine,” a day after US President Joe Biden described his counterpart Putin as a “butcher.”
“We must continue to talk to President Putin until he realizes at some point that the price he will pay for his intervention in Ukraine is so high that it is better to negotiate,” Le Drian said in his speech on the second and last day of the Doha Forum conference, which was reported by AFP.
Le Drian stressed at the same time that the dialogue should be “firm and free of naivety,” explaining, “That’s why President Macron continues to talk to President Putin to get the terms of the ceasefire first and negotiate after that.”
“It is not possible to negotiate seriously with the gun pointed to the head, which is why President Macron is trying in Mariupol to reach the appropriate conditions for achieving a ceasefire and launching negotiations,” Le Drian said.
On February 24, President Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country, and to defeat nationalist armed units, which are directly responsible for genocide in Donbass.
Source: Agencies
