French President Emmanuel Macron faced fierce criticism from Kyiv and the Baltic states on Sunday after suggesting security guarantees must be given to Russia as part of future negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
The comments, made in an interview with French television network TF1, came after Macron held talks with US President Joe Biden during a state visit to Washington, during which they discussed Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and how they are continue to support Ukraine.
Macron said the two leaders discussed the need for the US and Europe to prepare a “security architecture for tomorrow” for the region.
“That means that one of the key issues we need to address – how [Russian] president [Vladimir] Putin has always said – is the fear of NATO coming right at their doors and the use of weapons that could threaten Russia,” Macron said.
“This issue will be part of the peace issues, so we need to prepare for what we are ready for, how to protect our allies and member states, and how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table.”
The statements were met with severe criticism in Kyiv on Sunday.
“Someone wants to give security guarantees to a terrorist and killer state?” Oleksiy Danilov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s national security chief, in a tweet. Referring to the tribunals after World War II, he added: “Instead of Nuremberg – to sign an agreement with Russia and shake hands?”
An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the world instead needs security guarantees from Russia, which should be held accountable. “The civilized world needs ‘security guarantees’ from the barbaric intentions of post-Putin Russia,” tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak.
Kyiv, which itself is seeking post-war security guarantees from Western states, has rejected any suggestion that post-conflict concessions should be rewarded to Putin, since Russia was the aggressor.
Critics have previously accused Macron of being soft on Moscow after claiming that the West “should not humiliate Russia” over the war because it would still be a neighbor when the conflict was over.
Alexander Stubb, the former prime minister of Finland, which applied for NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said he fundamentally disagreed with Macron.
“The only security guarantees we should focus on are essentially non-Russian ones,” he tweeted. “Russia must first guarantee that it will not attack others. Only then can we begin conversations [European security].”
Artis Pabriks, Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia, told FT: “The idea that the Russian invasion [of] Ukraine can be ended by the West giving security guarantees to Russia, falling into the trap of Putin’s narrative that the West and Ukraine are to blame for this war and Russia is [an] innocent victim.”
Linas Linkevicius, former Lithuanian Foreign Minister, tweeted: “Russia has all security guarantees if it does not attack, annex or occupy its neighbors. If anyone wants to create a new security architecture that would allow a terrorist state to continue its methods of intimidation, they should think again.”
Macron’s comments also appeared to lend credibility to Putin’s claim that NATO had “expanded” towards Russia’s borders by absorbing former Soviet states and that this was a legitimate reason for the invasion.
The alliance has strenuously denied this claim, regularly reaffirming its “open door” policy that any nation, regardless of geographic location, can make a sovereign decision to apply to join and that Moscow has no veto power over applicants.
“Let’s clarify what we saw in Ukraine. Russia was not provoked. Russia was not threatened,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Saturday. “Putin’s war is not the result of NATO enlargement. It is the cause of NATO expansion.”
As the war enters its 10th month, Western officials have said no formal talks are taking place on ending the conflict. The US and other Ukraine allies, including France, have repeatedly stated that it will be up to Zelenskyy to decide on the terms his country would accept.
Biden said Thursday he was ready to talk to Putin if the Russian leader is serious about ending the war, which he says isn’t currently the case.
Russian officials later said they were also “open to negotiations to protect our interests,” but only if Western countries recognize certain demands.