Macron Announced Putin’s Promise to Refrain from Escalation around Ukraine

The French president believes that he has achieved his goal in negotiations with Putin. According to Macron, he promised that there would be no escalation of the conflict around Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to refrain from further escalation of the conflict over Ukraine. Macron himself announced this on Tuesday, February 8, shortly before arriving in Kiev, where he came due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Macron, Putin assured him that “there will be no deterioration or escalation”. The French head of state also said that during a five-hour meeting with Putin held in Moscow the day before, he had achieved his goal: “It was about pushing the brakes on the conflict over Ukraine and opening up new prospects.” Financial Times told about the deal in Ukraine In turn, the Financial Times newspaper, reporting on the results of the negotiations, wrote that Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin signed an agreement to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine: in particular, Putin promised not to take new “military initiatives” and to conduct a broad dialogue on the deployment of Russian troops, as well as to withdraw 30,000 Russian troops from Belarus after the Russian-Belarusian exercises. Meanwhile, Russian press Secretary Dmitry Peskov denied the FT’s information about the Ukraine deal. “The Financial Times, of course, wrote incorrectly, – he told reporters, – this is essentially wrong, Moscow and Paris could not conclude any deals.” According to Peskov, France holds the presidency of the European Union, but Paris does not hold the leadership in NATO. “In this bloc, leadership belongs to a completely different country. What kind of deals can we talk about?” – Putin’s press secretary noted. DW