The escalation of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine has raised concerns in the West and Ukraine that Russia is preparing a cause for an attack on Ukraine.
The presidents of France and Russia have agreed to promote a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, says the French presidential office. The President of France Emmanuel Macron and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin talked on the phone on Sunday for an hour and 45 minutes.
Following the call, the French Office of the President announced that the Presidents agreed that every effort should be made to avoid escalation and to maintain peace.
In eastern Ukraine, firing on the line between the government and separatists has intensified this week.
Ceasefire violations have raised fears in Ukraine and the West that Russia is exacerbating the situation in eastern Ukraine to make an excuse for a new military operation against Ukraine.
France begins preparations for the summit
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drianin is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart in the coming days Sergei Lavrov to prepare for a possible summit between Russia, Ukraine and the Allies.
According to the Kremlin and the French presidential office, a meeting is also being prepared in the Normandy format established to resolve the war in eastern Ukraine, which would mean that the participants would be Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
According to France, Putin and Macron are also seeking a meeting of the OSCE Contact Group on Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to return the ceasefire to eastern Ukraine.
After a conversation with Putin, Macron spoke to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with. Zelenskyi said he supported the idea of an immediate meeting of the contact group.
Macron was to speak to the German Chancellor Olaf Scholzin and with other allies later on Sunday.
The information war is going hot
According to a Kremlin press release, Putin accused Ukraine of “provocations” in a call with Macron, but still agreed with Macron to seek a diplomatic solution.
Russia is effectively controlling and maintaining the separatist areas in Donetsk and Luhansk, which in recent days have accused the Ukrainian government of intent to invade and spectacularly evacuated civilians to Russia.
Russia’s state news agency Tass says Putin has told Macron that the United States and NATO must respond to Russia’s previous demands in a “concrete and significant” way.
Conflicting messages
President of the United States Joe Biden said on Friday he believed Putin had decided to attack Ukraine.
On the other hand, the United States has not agreed to the Ukrainian government’s demands for tough sanctions on Russia right now.
Earlier on Sunday, the Ministry of Defense of Belarus announced that military exercises between Russia and Belarus were continuing.
It shattered Western hopes that Russia would quickly withdraw its troops that it could use to attack Ukraine.
NATO has estimated that there are about 30,000 Russian soldiers and a significant amount of equipment in Belarus.