Less than a week before the dramatic first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron is stepping up his speeches in favor of a diplomatic solution. The head of state reiterated that he wanted Moscow to be “defeated” against Ukraine, while warning those who wanted “above all to destroy Russia”, which would “never” be France’s position.
“I want Russia to be defeated in Ukraine and I want Ukraine to be able to defend its position, but I am convinced that in the end it will not be decided militarily,” the French leader said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche, Le Figaro and France Inter and published on Saturday night.
“I don’t think, like some, that Russia should be completely defeated and attacked on its soil. Above all, these observers want to destroy Russia. That has never been France’s position and never will be,” he added. These observers seem to him to be rather uncompromising observers, especially in Eastern Europe, who sharply criticized his statements in May 2022 that Russia should not be “humiliated”.
Macron “does not believe” in a “solution of Russian society”
In that interview, conducted Friday night on the plane that was taking him back from Germany, where he was attending the annual Munich Security Conference, the President reiterated his desire to promote a negotiated outcome. In his speech in the Bavarian city he had already considered that Russia should “fail” in Ukraine, but some observers had accused him of not having gone so far as to provoke a necessary “defeat” for Moscow.
He also stated that it was necessary to “intensify” support for Kiev in order to seek “credible negotiations”. “What is needed today is for Ukraine to lead a military offensive that disrupts the Russian front to trigger a return to negotiations,” he told the three media outlets. In his opinion, “neither side can fully enforce”, “neither Ukraine nor Russia, because the impact of the mobilization is not as great as expected and it has its own capacity limits”.
Emmanuel Macron also believes that “all options except Vladimir Putin within the current system” “appear worse” to him than the Russian president, alluding to tough guys like Russian Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev or Russian Security Council head of paramilitary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin. “Do we sincerely believe that after these years of hardening and full conflict, a democratic solution will emerge from the Russian civil society present on the ground? I really want it, but I don’t really believe in it,” he warned.