Marathon meeting between Putin and Macron to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis

face to face between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron in the Kremlin. Both leaders held a long meeting this Monday more than five hours to try to find a way out Ukraine crisis and security negotiations in Europe.

At the beginning of the meeting, the first meeting between Putin and a western leader ever since Moscow began deploying troops near the border with the neighboring country, the French president has called on his Russian counterpart to find a collective response to “avoid a war”. “Today’s conversation can pave the path we must take, that of de-escalation,” she advanced.

At the end of it, at the joint press conference that both leaders offered, the French leader pointed out that there are several points of “convergence” and that the next few days will be “decisive” and will require “intense discussions”. According to the French president, he has transferred “concrete guarantees” to Putin on securitywhich is why he has expressed his optimism about a diplomatic way out of the crisis.

“I deeply believe that there is still time“, declared Macron, who also pointed out that Putin has reassured him about the possible deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarusa country that borders several NATO members.

Macron has also advocated “new security mechanisms” to stabilize the situation. “We must jointly show that we are willing to work on security guarantees, build a new order of security and stability in Europe,” he said.

For his part, Putin has praised “some of the ideas and proposals” of Macron to forge a security agreement that satisfies all the countries of the continent. “For our part, we will do our best to find a compromise that satisfies everyone. In the proposals that we send to NATO and to Washington there is not a single point that we consider unfeasible. Not one,” she asserted.

However, he has also warned that in a war between Russia and the Alliance “there will be no winners”, since Moscow has a powerful “nuclear arsenal”. “If a war breaks out, there will be no winners. They won’t even have time to blink”has ruled Putin, who has also expressed that Russia will continue to try to obtain answers from the West about its main security concerns, that considered ignored by NATO and the United States.

During his speech, the Russian president denounced that the NATO countries “continue to flood Ukraine with weapons”. A question that, according to him, he raised with his French counterpart during their meeting, while he warned that Russia “will not allow Ukraine to try to recapture Crimea by military means”.

Biden urges Americans to leave Ukraine

Meanwhile, the President of the United States, Joe Bidenhas indicated this Monday that the citizens of his country who are in Ukraine – with the exception of diplomatic personnel – should leave the country, although he acknowledged that he still does not know if there will be a Russian attack.

“I believe that it would be a wise decision, that they leave the country“, the North American president has indicated in a joint press conference with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, with whom he has met in the White House. “I would hate to see them caught in a crossfire, if they finally invade. There’s no need for that,” he added.