France is ready to play the role of guarantor in building peace in Ukraine, French leader Emmanuel Macron has said.
“At some point a ceasefire will come and we will have to build peace. This cannot be done without a guarantor, and France is called to be one of such guarantors,” Parisien quoted Macron.
In addition, Macron stressed that he intends to continue telephone talks with Russian head of state Vladimir Putin, as this gives France the opportunity to “maintain the status of a negotiating party”. Macron believes this is his “duty”. “And even if I believe there will be no result by mid-May, it will be useful to prepare for peace in the future,” he said.
The French president said he was paying great attention to humanitarian issues, highlighting separately the situation in Mariupol. According to him, Moscow has “quite clearly expressed its refusal” in response to the proposal of France to conduct its own humanitarian operation there together with Greece and Turkey. France proposes to open a humanitarian corridor and involve employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the operation.
We shall remind you that Ukraine sees the permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, the USA, the UK, France and China), as well as Germany, Israel, Italy, Canada, Poland and Turkey as its security guarantors.