The prominent French daily Le Monde reported Sept. 14 that members of the French government are now exercising “great discretion” in the way they are handling the danger of conflict escalation in Ukraine, according to unnamed diplomats cited by the daily. According to an account in RT, an unnamed official told Le Monde: “We must do everything possible to avoid World War III.… One cannot simply dismiss the hypothesis that the Russians could expand the scale of their military operations,” in reference to the warning coming from top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin.