Macron on back foot over peace talks

French President Emmanuel Macron will tell Vladimir Putin in a telephone call to withdraw his troops after critics accused France of selling out on Kyiv.

French President Emmanuel Macron says that he deems Russia’s attacks on civil infrastructure in Ukraine to be a war crime. Picture: AFP

President Emmanuel Macron is expected to press Vladimir Putin in a telephone call to negotiate an end to his invasion of Ukraine but he will make clear that Russian troops must be withdrawn and the country’s sovereignty restored, his aides said.

Mr Macron’s aims in his first conversation with Mr Putin since August have prompted suspicion in Ukraine and its Baltic allies after he said on Saturday that Russia must be offered guarantees over its security, taking into account its fear that “NATO comes right up to its doors”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisers were scathing. “Someone wants to provide security guarantees to a terrorist and killer state?” Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s national security council, said. Referring to the postwar trial of Nazi war criminals, he added: “Instead of Nuremberg – to sign an agreement with Russia and shake hands?”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s (right) at a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and France's President Emmanuel Macron (centre) in Kyiv in June. Picture: Getty Images

Shrugging off the criticism, French officials said Mr Macron, who held long talks on Ukraine with President Joe Biden in Washington last week, remains fully committed to backing Kyiv’s drive to defeat the Russian invaders. Mr Macron said in Washington that he deems Russia’s attacks on civil infrastructure to be a war crime.

Signs of uneasiness have emerged, however, in the French policy establishment over the way that Mr Macron’s weekend remarks have given succour to Moscow, where they were enthusiastically relayed by the Kremlin-controlled media.

Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador to Washington and normally a Mr Macron supporter, tweeted on Tuesday: “In foreign policy, you never say everything you think in public. Being right is not enough. You also have to say it at the right time or you risk achieving the opposite result to the one you are seeking”.

Mr Macron, who has repeatedly drawn fire for his efforts to mediate with Moscow, said he aims to focus on security in Ukrainian nuclear power stations during his conversation with Mr Putin.

But he set out his hopes for a negotiated end to the war and a “new security architecture for Europe” in two weekend interviews. It was vital to continue “helping the Ukrainians reconquer their territory foot by foot”, he told Le Parisien newspaper. Only the Ukrainians could decide when to negotiate, he said. “There are 10,000 different formulae: more decentralised regions … with recognition for example of co-official language status for Russian, land under international protection, formulae for self-determination”.

He would speak with Mr Zelensky before calling Mr Putin, he added.

Mr Macron’s Washington visit has reinforced Franco-American understanding over Ukraine, his team said. Last week Mr Biden said that he could meet Mr Putin to discuss Ukraine if the conditions were right. The idea was ruled out by Moscow.

The French stance on Ukraine is tougher than Germany’s but Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, does not for some reason attract the same criticism as Mr Macron from the more hawkish EU states, French diplomats said. Last week Mr Scholz said Europe should return to the pre-Ukraine war “peace order” with Moscow and resolve “all common security issues” if Mr Putin agrees to renounce aggression against Russia’s neighbours.

– The Times