In parallel, the German, Czech, Slovak and Austrian foreign ministers travel to Kiev.
Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers are deployed on the border with Ukraine, raising fears of a military incursion. But Moscow denies any intention of invasion and affirms that it is doing it for its security, while claiming that the NATO stop expanding on your borders.
Macron, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU), will visit Moscow on Monday and Kiev on Tuesday to meet with the president Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The intensity of the dialogue that we have had with Russia and this visit to Moscow are to prevent” an armed conflict, the French president estimated in an interview with the Journal Du Dimanche, insisting that he wants address the crisis “in terms of de-escalation”.
For the Russian government, the meeting between the two leaders is “very important”, although it predicts that there will be little progress.
“The situation is too complex to expect decisive progress after a single meeting,” said Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, despite the fact that “Macron told Putin that he was coming with ideas with a view to detente.”
For the French president, this trip is also a political bet a few months before the presidential elections.
Russia accuses the West, especially Washington and NATO, of ignoring its security concerns.
Westerners reject these demands and propose gestures of confidence such as reciprocal visits to military installations or disarmament measures to calm Russian concerns. A “positive” but “secondary” measures, thinks Moscow.
Also on Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet US President Joe Biden in Washington.
“We are working hard to send a clear message to Russia that it will have to pay a high price if it intervenes in Ukraine,” Scholz told The Washington Post in an interview.
For its part, the United States continues to send military reinforcements to Europe.
The US intelligence service estimated that Russia already has 70% of the equipment needed for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In Ukraine, however, the authorities relativized Washington’s forecasts.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged not to believe in “apocalyptic predictions”. “Different capitals have different scenarios, but Ukraine is ready for any development,” he said on Twitter.
Russia already invaded a part of Ukraine in 2014, when it annexed the peninsula of crimea after the pro-Western uprising in Kiev. International sanctions against Moscow had no effect on the Kremlin line.
Since 2014, pro-Russian separatists, supported by Moscow, have been fighting the Ukrainian army in the east of the country. Several peace agreements, sponsored by Paris and Berlin, allowed the fighting to cease, but the political resolution of the conflict is still pending.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
