Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone for the third time in six days. Macron will fly to Moscow on Monday (Feb. 7) to meet Putin in person. The next day, Feb. 8, he’ll meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev, with whom he also spoke by phone yesterday.
The Kremlin read-out of the Macron call said, “The substantive dialogue on the situation around Ukraine and issues related to the Russian initiative to develop long-term legally binding security guarantees for the Russian Federation was continued,” Further, “The leaders exchanged views on the current state of affairs, including in the context of recent contacts with a number of international partners and France’s Presidency at the EU Council.” Putin, the readout observed, “again emphasized the provocative statements and actions of the Kiev leadership, which run counter to the Minsk agreements.”
