French President Emmanuel Macron drew fury from London and Kyiv for suggesting a possible French “mediating role” and an “exit ramp” for Russia out of the war in Ukraine. Macron gave an interview to French regional newspapers on June 4, from which Reuters on June 5 quoted him as follows: “`We must not humiliate Russia, so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means,’ Macron said in an interview to regional newspapers published on Saturday. `I am convinced that it is France’s role to be a mediating power.’”
The tone of Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s response on Twitter was very British indeed: “Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it. Because it is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place.” The London “Torygraph” amplified this with a headline, “Emmanuel Macron Slapped Down over `Humiliating’ Comments on Russia.” Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe’s hysterical column published June 6 in CNBC (see separate report) may also have been in response to Macron. It appears Macron may have hit a sensitive nerve.
Also during the weekend John Sullivan, the (Trump holdover) U.S. Ambassador to Russia, gave an interview to TASS, saying: “We are also never completely separating. We can’t just cut diplomatic relations really, and just not talk. At a minimum, we sit near each other at the UN Security Council in New York every day. No matter what, we are better talking to each other at the UN, at the Security Council. And we should have embassies. This is the bare minimum. This is basic.”
“We should have embassies in Moscow and in Washington, not just the Russian mission to the UN. I just think factually we’ll never be able to get to that level of complete separation because we are joined as permanent members of the [UN] Security Council. And having been joined in that way we do need to continue to engage with each other despite many contested issues that we have. We see each other, speak and present on a daily basis in New York. That’s a bare minimum,” Sullivan emphasized. (https://tass.com/world/1460945)
