Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s presence at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, is “a way of building peace,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Sunday.
Paris provided Zelensky with a plane to take him first to the top of the Arab League and then to the G7 summit in Japan. It is “France is building peace and looking for solutions,” Macron added.
Zelensky’s visit to Jeddah, which hosted Friday’s Arab League summit, enabled the Ukrainian leader to “get very clear support from Saudi Arabia and from various powers in the region”, “which is a real turning point”, defended the French head of state.
In Hiroshima, Zelensky will also “express himself in front of several world powers that are sometimes exposed to just a single speech,” Macron said, referring to non-aligned countries such as Brazil and India, guests at the summit, who are part of the group of emerging countries. with Russia.
“This prevents a dichotomy of the world between those who clearly support Ukraine and those who say they support peace, but without sometimes knowing what that means,” the French president added.
Since arriving in Hiroshima on Saturday, Zelensky has held bilateral meetings with G7 officials and has already made contact with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who assured him that India will do “everything possible” to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. unload.
According to the French presidency, Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also plans to meet Zelensky at the summit.
Emmanuel Macron asked the world not to be satisfied with a possible ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow: it would be “a mistake” because “experience has taught us that a frozen conflict will be a war tomorrow”.
The French leader was “extremely cautious” about the situation in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting and the scene of the country’s longest and bloodiest battle since the Russian attack in February 2022.
“It is up to the Ukrainian authorities to say the evolution of their forces on the ground,” Macron said. “This operation, which has been launched since December in a city of limited size, also shows how difficult the Russian army is to advance,” he stressed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin today congratulated the army and the Wagner paramilitary group on the capture of the city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense indicated in the early hours of Sunday that the private army, with the support of Russian troops, had full control of the city.
Ukrainian authorities reported that fighting for Bakhmut continued.
“The situation is critical. At the same time […] our defenders control some industrial facilities and infrastructure in the area, as well as in the private sector,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar told the Telegram social network.
Source: DN
