In a bid to avert a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine, French President, Emmanuel Macron will meet Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Monday afternoon.
The French leader said the meeting was aimed at dialoguing with Russia to reduce escalating tension.
Macron had said “it is essential to prevent a degradation of the situation” and that it is legitimate for Russia to raise security concerns.
“The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU,” Macron said on Sunday.
France has played a central role in attempting to mediate between Kyiv and Moscow in the past. Alongside Germany.
It helped broker a 2015 peace deal for Eastern Ukraine to end hostilities between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists that erupted the previous year following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
.Putin and his officials have urged France, Germany and other Western allies to encourage Ukraine to fulfill its obligations under the 2015 agreement, which envisaged a broad autonomy for the rebel-held east and a sweeping amnesty for the separatists.
The agreement stipulated that only after those conditions are met would Ukraine be able to restore control of its border with Russia in rebel regions.
But many in Ukraine see the Minsk deal as a betrayal of national interests and authorities have strongly warned the West against pressuring Kyiv to implement the agreement amid the current tensions.
Mnt/ Jeffery Ahonmisin
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