Yesterday at 18:23
French President Emmanuel Macron claims that Putin’s rejection of the traditional ‘Olympic truce’ offered by France proves he is not seeking peace.
He mentioned this during an interview with CNBC.
Macron emphasizes that a truce is not an endgame, but “sustainable peace” is. However, he thinks it is “very important to use this window during one-month time”.
“I think this is a very good opportunity, first diplomatically to engage with China and others and say, ‘OK, you are on the peace side. Get with us and help us to do so’. And, second, to maximize the level of pressure on those who decided to launch a war,” the French President explained.
Ukraine is also reluctant to accept the truce as Russia would most likely not keep any promises, instead using this as an opportunity to replenish resources and launch another attack.
“I don’t believe this will work with Russia […] Any format of truce with Russia. Emmanuel knows this […] We went through the Minsk process together. France, Germany, Ukraine — we are all living witnesses to the fact that there can be no frozen conflict with Russia,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy told French journalist Hugo Travers.
Emmanuel Macron has called on Ukraine and Russia to agree to a ceasefire during the Olympics in Paris from July 26 to August 11.
In 1993, the concept of the Olympic truce was revived during the Balkan wars. All the times it was ignored involved Russia. During Beijing 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, during Russia’s Sochi Winter Olympics Russia occupied Crimea, and then during Beijing 2022, the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Read also: Russia will not agree to “Macron’s truce” during the Olympics, despite its validity, – opinion
