"Hello, Putin?"

Macron re -elected for a new term and again began to call the Russian president. Photo of the day

French President Emmanuel Macron on the afternoon of May 3 talked on the phone with Putin. According to the Elysee Palace, the conversation took place at the initiative of the French president "as a result of negotiations with the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky last Saturday, April 30." The conversation of Macron and Putin lasted 2 hours 10 minutes. According to Eliseisky, Macron “once again emphasized the extreme seriousness of the consequences of Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine” and “called on Russia to fulfill its duties of a permanent member of the Security Council and put an end to this destructive aggression,” and also “again demanded a ceasefire”.

The French leader also “expressed an invariable readiness to work on solving the problem by negotiations in order to ensure the world and complete respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

In addition, the French president also “expressed deep concern to the situation in Mariupol and the Donbass and called on Russia to allow the evacuation of the Azovstal plant that began in the last days of the Azovstal plant to continue in coordination with humanitarian organizations and allow the evacuated to choose the destination in accordance with international humanitarian law.”

The Kremlin version is available on his official website. Before today's conversation, the French president did not call the Kremlin for more than a month (from March 29) - as the sources reported, this was due to the fact of the publications made by the Russian military in Buch and other cities of Ukraine. In addition, in France the election campaign was in full swing. At the end of April, Emmanuel Macron, nevertheless, stated that he “does not exclude” new telephone contacts with Putin - “if it helps” to solve humanitarian issues, “salvation of even several lives”.

It should be noted that some residents of France are not very pleased with the fact of the resumption of telephone conversations of the two presidents, which they signal the ways with the methods available to them.

Natalia Danilova