The statement of the French president has already triggered strong reactions, Emmanuel Macron, that the West should consider "addressing" Russia's need for security guarantees in order to end the war in Ukraine.
The idea of concessions to the Kremlin, after 10 months of war, has been rejected by the Ukrainian side, and at the moment does not have many supporters in the West.
The controversial statements
Macron's statements were made on Saturday to the French television network TF1 in an interview during the French president's visit to the United States.
Macron said the West should take into account the request for security guarantees from the Russian side and take into account the Kremlin's concerns about NATO's eastward expansion.
"If President Vladimir Putin agrees to negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, the West will have to consider how to address the need for security guarantees," Macron said.
"This means," the Elysée chief said, "that one of the key points to address - as President Putin has always said - is the (Russian) fear that NATO will reach Russia's doorstep as well as the development (by NATO) of weapons that could threaten Russia."
"This issue will be part of the peace issues, so we have to prepare what we are ready to do, how to protect our allies and our member states and how to give guarantees to Russia on the day when it comes back to the negotiating table."
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Should Russia give guarantees to the civilized world?
One of the first to be appointed was Lithuania's former Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs, Linas Linkevicius.
"Russia has all the security guarantees if it does not attack, annex or occupy its neighbors," Linkevicius mockingly said on Twitter on Sunday.
"If someone wants to create a new security architecture that allows a terrorist state to continue its methods of intimidation, they should think again," he added.
The Ukrainian president's adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, was even sharper, writing on Twitter that he thought it might be "the civilized world that needs 'security guarantees' from the barbaric intentions of post-Putin Russia."
"This will only be possible after the court, the conviction of war instigators and war criminals, the imposition of large-scale reparations and clarification on the part of the Russian elite of 'who is to blame,'" Podolyak explained.
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Russia and the US said last week that they were open to talks in principle, although President Joe Biden said he would only talk to Putin if the Kremlin chief showed he was interested in ending the war.
Many, in Ukraine and the West, strongly oppose any deal with Putin that would reward him with concessions, especially as Ukraine has pushed Russian forces out of large areas over the past three months.
However, Macron's statements suggest that he shares Moscow's need for security guarantees - an issue that was the focus of intense but failed diplomacy before the war.
Source: in.gr
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