The French presidency said Sunday that it welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to speak with President Emmanuel Macron over the war in Ukraine, adding that the conditions for such talks would be determined in coming days. In an interview published earlier Sunday, a Kremin spokesman said Putin has “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron”.
The French presidency welcomed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to speak with President Emmanuel Macron, adding the terms under which such a conversation could take place would be determined in coming days.
“It is welcome that the Kremlin has publicly agreed to this approach. We will decide in the coming days on the best way to proceed,” the Elysee said, after the Kremlin spokesman said Putin “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue” with his French counterpart.
Zelensky calls for consultations
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called for broader consultations with European partners after talks between US and Ukrainian teams in Florida last week.
“We are moving at a fairly rapid pace, and our team in Florida has been working with the American side,” Zelensky said on the Telegram messenger. He said he had just talked with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on the phone.
Kremlin denies
The Kremlin denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States were on the cards, as diplomats gathered in Miami for talks on ending the conflict.
“At present, no one has seriously discussed this initiative, and to my knowledge, it is not in preparation,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters, according to Russian news agencies.
US and Russia talks constructive
US negotiators met Russian officials in Florida for the latest talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to coax an agreement out of both sides to end the conflict.
The Miami meeting followed US talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials, the latest discussions of a peace plan that has sparked some hope of a resolution to the conflict that began when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev told reporters after meeting US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner that the talks were constructive and would continue on Sunday. A White House official said the talks had concluded for the day.
Putin ready to talk
Vladimir Putin is ready to talk with France’s Emmanuel Macron over the war in Ukraine, the Russian president’s spokesman said in an interview published Sunday.
Putin has “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron”, Dmitry Peskov told state news agency RIA Novosti.
“Therefore, if there is mutual political will, then this can only be assessed positively.”
Macron said this week he believed Europe should reach back out to Putin over ending the war.
“I believe that it’s in our interest as Europeans and Ukrainians to find the right framework to re-engage this discussion” in the coming weeks, the French president said.
Yesterday’s developments:
- Washington proposed trilateral talks between US, Russia and Ukraine.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that only the US is capable of persuading Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
- Russian missile strikes on port infrastructure in Odesa, southern Ukraine, killed eight people and left 27 wounded.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev arrived in Miami and headed for talks with US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
- (FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters and AP)