Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, emphasized that the supply of weapons to Ukraine represents a threat to Russia, and he called for the initiation of negotiations to ensure that NATO does not expand eastward. The Kremlin stated in a statement that Putin and Macron held a phone conversation on Tuesday at the initiative of the French side, where "both parties explained their initial assessments of the situations forming around Ukraine."
The statement reported that Putin provided specific examples indicating that Kyiv is violating the Minsk agreements, which he described as an irreplaceable basis for resolving the internal crisis in Ukraine. The Russian president noted that the Ukrainian authorities are "deliberately escalating the situation along the contact line with the neglect of several Western countries," emphasizing that "Ukraine is being pumped with modern weapons, which poses a direct threat to Russia's security."
Putin stressed "the importance of launching international negotiations as soon as possible to establish legally recorded guarantees that exclude any future expansion of NATO eastward and the deployment of weapons threatening Russia in neighboring countries, especially in Ukraine," which was also discussed in talks with U.S. President Joe Biden.
According to the statement, the Russian president urged "French partners to approach with understanding the concerns that were discussed and to engage in their examination." Furthermore, during their call, Putin and Macron exchanged views on measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and discussed the situation at the Belarusian borders with European Union countries, as well as developments in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia, where they reaffirmed the usefulness of intensifying work in the direction of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which includes Russia, France, and the United States.
