Ukraine: Vladimir Putin ready for compromise after meeting Emmanuel Macron

Vladimir Putin says he is ready for compromise on Ukraine after a five-hour meeting with Emmanuel Macron – but their seating arrangement has caused a stir.

Heavy battle tanks of the Bundeswehr's 9th Panzer Training Brigade as German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht increases troops in Eastern Europe. Picture: Getty Images.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has vowed Moscow would do its best to find compromises in the crisis with the West over Ukraine following talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The prominent leaders emerged from the talks in the Kremlin after five hours to address the media.

“As far as we are concerned, we will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone,” Mr Putin said, adding that there would be “no winners” if war breaks out on the European continent.

But it was their seating arrangement that had commentators in a spin.

The leaders sat at least 10 feet away from each other on an unusually long and ornate table.

“This table that Macron and Putin sat at in Moscow today is comically large,” Business Insider senior politics reporter John Haltiwanger tweeted.

La Libre journalist Sebastian Gobert tweeted: “There is more space between Macron and Putin than between the Russian troops and the Ukrainian borders.”

Twitter users compared the arrangement to a children’s seesaw.

“Will Putin and Macron do face painting after?” a Twitter user posted.

Another said: “Putin and Macron are meeting in the most absurd setting”.

It is unclear if the table arrangement was designed to keep the leaders Covid safe.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin keep their distance during their meeting at the Kremlin. Picture: SPUTNIK /AFP

Mr 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 neighbour.

With tens of thousands of Russian troops camped near the Ukrainian border, Mr Macron was the first top Western leader to meet Mr Putin since the crisis began in December.

Mr Macron said he had made proposals of “concrete security guarantees” to Mr Putin during the negotiations on Monday local time.

“President Putin assured me of his readiness to engage in this sense and his desire to maintain stability and the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Mr Macron said after the meeting in the Kremlin.

He did not provide any details but said the two leaders would speak by phone after he meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Moscow. Picture: AFP

The Russian leader said he was grateful to Mr Macron for his efforts to solve the security crisis.

“I would like to thank Mr. Macron for the efforts France is making to resolve the acute issue of our relations with NATO, to create an environment of stability on the European continent, to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine,” Mr Putin said.

He denied that Russia was acting aggressively towards Ukraine or the West.

“It is not us who are moving towards NATO’s borders,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin checks his watch before a press conference with the French President in Moscow. Picture: AFP

If Ukraine joins the Western military bloc, Russia could get sucked into conflict with European countries, he added.

“Do you want France to go to war with Russia?” Mr Putin said.

He also insisted that Ukrainian authorities should respect Western-brokered Minsk agreements on the country’s separatist conflict.

“I believe that there’s simply no alternative,” Mr Putin said.

UK, GERMANY COMMIT TO MORE TROOPS

The United Kingdom and Germany committed to sending more troops to Eastern Europe.

The UK would send 350 troops to the Polish border, while Germany will send 350 troops to Lithuania, to bolster the eastern flank of the NATO alliance.

It follows the arrival of 300 United States troops to Europe two days earlier, the first of 2000 to deploy to the region in coming weeks.

Heavy battle tanks of the Bundeswehr's 9th Panzer Training Brigade as German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht increases troops in Eastern Europe. Picture: Getty Images.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the troops would strengthen a contingent of 100 British soldiers already stationed in the country, and would be a “bilateral deployment to show that we can work together and send a strong signal that Britain and Poland stand side-by-side”.

There are growing fears that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would trigger a massive influx of refugees to Poland.

Germany’s troops will join 500 already stationed in Lithuania, making it Germany’s second biggest troop deployment, within days.

Bundeswehr's 9th Panzer Training Brigade as German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht increases troops in Eastern Europe. Picture: Getty Images.

The troop build up comes as leaders of NATO countries scramble to avoid starting a war with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Washington DC to meet with US president Joe Biden while French president Emmanuel Macron met with Putin in Moscow.

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.

Biden made a categorical vow at the talks to shut down the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe if Moscow launches an invasion.

“If Russia invades – that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine, again – then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Mr Biden told a joint White House news conference with Mr Scholz, following bilateral talks in the Oval Office.

“I promise you,” Biden said, “we will bring an end to it.”