The Foreign Minister spoke a day after Emmanuel Macron’s speech.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on March 1, 2022 (AFP / Alik KEPLICZ)
“The worst is yet to come” in the war waged by Russia in Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was alarmed on Thursday (March 3rd) as the Russian army surrounded several cities. Ukrainians she hits.
“We may be afraid of the logic of the siege” to which the Russians are accustomed
warned the head of French diplomacy on public television France 2. “Remember Aleppo, Grozny”, he launched in relation to these two cities in Syria and Chechnya, destroyed by Russian bombs in recent decades.
“The war is killing hundreds, including on the Russian side,” Mr Le Drian said, while his US counterpart, Anthony Blinken, had already described on Wednesday as “amazing” the human casualties of the Russian invasion, in which the destroyed targets were “not military targets”.
“We do not negotiate with a gun to the head”
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants “the denial of Ukraine and the denial of a democratic country on its doorstep,” the French foreign minister said.
“It simply came to our notice then. The history of Donbass and the two republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, which we talked about a few days ago, was an alibi, it was a pretext, he explained that Putin’s will is to avoid having democratic models on his doorstep. which is likely to affect Russia’s development. ”
French foreign minister reiterates call for ceasefire ahead of talks
while the second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine is scheduled for Thursday in Belarus, on the country’s border with Poland.
“They call it negotiations. These are not negotiations. We are not negotiating with a gun to our heads. That is why it is imperative that a ceasefire be imposed,” he insisted.
Emmanuel Macron also spoke about the situation on Wednesday. He assured France’s support for the Ukrainian people and warned the French of the consequences that would come to the territory, economically and politically.