Macron: Trump has good reasons for dialogue with Putin

French President Emmanuel Macron supported the position of American leader Donald Trump on negotiations with Russia on the conflict with Ukraine, and also called on the United States to support the deployment of European troops as a security guarantee for Kiev.

"President Trump has good reasons to resume interaction with President (of Russia Vladimir) Putin," AFP quoted Macron as saying.

The French president flew to Moscow for a personal meeting with Putin in early February 2022, a few weeks before the start of full-scale fighting on the Ukraine. Also, the leaders often communicated by phone: Macron said that in six months he spent "a hundred hours" in negotiations with Putin. Their last conversation took place in September 2022, Putin later said that Macron himself ended their "good relations." Also, since the beginning of hostilities, there have been no contacts between Putin and former US President Joe Biden.

According to Macron, with the advent of the new US administration, "big changes have taken place," "a new context has come." He noted that he always advocates discussions with leaders of other countries, "especially when you disagree."

"In 2014, our predecessors held peace talks with President Putin, but due to the lack of guarantees, and especially security guarantees, President Putin violated this peace," Macron said.

The French President is referring to the Minsk agreements of 2014-2015, which consolidated the main measures to resolve the situation in Donbass. In December 2022, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the agreements "an attempt to give Ukraine time." According to her, at that time, "Putin could have easily seized" the country, and NATO states would not have provided Kiev with such support as they do now. According to Merkel, Ukraine used this time to become stronger. Former French President Francois Hollande, under whom the Minsk agreements were concluded, also agreed with her assessment.

Since then, the Russian authorities have repeatedly commented on the words of Merkel and Hollande, stating that "no one was going to execute the agreements," and Russia was "deceived, and this aggravated the situation." In December 2024, Putin said that Western countries gave Ukraine the opportunity to prepare for hostilities long before they began, and Russia needed to launch a military operation earlier.

According to Macron, "being strong and having deterrence potential is the only way to be sure that you will be treated with respect." He said that European countries ready to send to Ukraine peacekeepers after the end of the fighting, we need the support of the United States. Trump had previously promised "a certain form of support," but noted that the security situation at the Ukraine will be monitored by Europe, "it will not be a big problem."

According to Trump, he asked Putin a question about European peacekeepers at the Ukraine, and the Russian president is not against this idea. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called unacceptable the appearance of NATO troops in a neighboring country, even "under a foreign flag, under the flag of the European Union or national flags." The Kremlin also expressed concern about the possible deployment of troops of the alliance countries to Ukraine, reminds RBC.