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“The worst is yet to come,” says Jean-Yves Le Drian, for whom “the whole of Ukraine” is under “bombs”

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“We are facing a wall, the logic of a siege that is likely to last. So in this situation, I think the worst is yet to come,” said Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le. Drian, who said he is “pessimistic”, on the development of the war in Ukraine, Sunday, March 13, on fracneinfo and France Inter. According to him, the “small spaces” of hope “seem to be closing with the intensification of Russian hostilities and the blocking of discussions.”

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On a military level, Jean-Yves Le Drian believed that “the attack by Russian troops is now global in nature.” “Today we are not safe from bombs anywhere in Ukraine, all of Ukraine today is under fire from Russian troops. We bomb indiscriminately,” he said. by Sunday, March 13, at least 35 people had died near the Polish border, or these hospitals, civilian objects, are intended to “scare and spread fear.”

“I also see that nothing is moving,” the foreign minister added, clarifying the “logic of places” laid down by Russia. “This is a well proven strategy, according to Jean-Yves Le Drian. We are bombing. Then we pretend that we are laying humanitarian corridors that we do not necessarily follow, and we blame the other for what is wrong. We say that those who did not come out are terrorists, nationalists, neo-Nazis, so they are guilty, and we strike back. And we open up negotiations that are usually fake negotiations and blame others for them. Leave.”

From a diplomatic standpoint, Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced discussions that “are not moving forward” between Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Vladimir Putin. According to him, “President Putin is stuck in his maximalism, stuck in his military goals, not moving, acting in the form of a dictate that he wants to impose on Ukraine.”

“Vladimir Putin makes revisionism at gunpoint.”

Jean-Yves Le Drian

on Franceinfo

The owner of the Orsay embankment spoke of “authoritarian drift” inside Russia and “expansionist will” outside of it. Jean-Yves Le Drian thus reiterated the need for a ceasefire, believing that “we cannot negotiate with a gun to our heads.” This, he said, is “a prerequisite for everything” and “this is what Emmanuel Macron asked on Saturday with great insistence from President Putin.”

If France continues to “stubbornly” negotiate with Russia despite the current deadlock in the negotiations, then it is waiting for the moment when “it will be possible to talk to each other,” Jean-Yves Le Drian pointed out. According to him, the sanctions have the following goal: “It is about raising the price of the war against Vladimir Putin so that he is forced to arbitrate between what it will cost his country, its people, and the opening of real discussions.”

At the same time, the minister recalled the three axes around which support for Ukrainians is articulated: sanctions, from which “a new train is being prepared” to prohibit, in particular, the import of iron, steel and luxury goods from Russia, military support, namely the sending of “defensive and deadly » weapons and financial assistance. When asked about the possibility of adding an embargo on Russian gas and oil imports to this, Jean-Yves Le Drian assured that “there is no taboo” and that “everything is on the table”, picking up the words of Emmanuel Macron, recalling in passing that “we are not at war with Russia, but Russia is at war with Ukraine.”