President Macron Calls Vladimir Putin And Volodymyr Zelenskiy Committed To 2014 Peace Treaty Principles

JAKARTA - French President Emmanuel Macron, the first major Western leader to meet Vladimir Putin since Russia amassed troops near Ukraine, said on Tuesday he was confident steps could be taken to de-escalate the crisis and called on all parties to remain calm.

President Macron, in contrast to U.S. and British leaders, has played down the possibility of Russia imminently attacking its neighbour, departing Moscow for Kyiv on Tuesday in a high-level bid to act as a mediator.

But President Macron said he thought his talks had helped prevent the crisis from escalating further. Both President Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have told him they are committed to the principles of the 2014 peace agreement, he said, adding that this deal, known as the Minsk agreement, offers a way to resolve their ongoing dispute.

"This shared determination is the only way that will allow us to create peace, the only way to create a viable political solution," President Macron said at a joint news conference with President Zelenskiy.

"Calm, very important on the part of all parties in word and deed," said President Macron, praising Zelenskiy for "the sangfroid you have shown, and which the Ukrainian people have shown, in the face of military pressure on your borders and in your country".

Meanwhile, President Zelenskiy made it clear he was skeptical of any guarantees the French President might receive from President Putin.

"I don't really believe in words, I believe every politician can be transparent by taking concrete steps," the Ukrainian leader said.

From Kyiv, President Macron then flew to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In a joint statement before the talks began, Chancellor Scholz told reporters, "Our common goal is to prevent war in Europe."

"Our assessment of the situation is unified, as is our position on this: any further attack on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is unacceptable and will have far-reaching consequences for Russia - politically, economically, and geo-strategically."

For information, Western countries led by the United States are worried that Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine. Meanwhile, Moscow said it was not planning an invasion, but could take unspecified "military-technical measures" unless a number of security demands were met, including a pledge from Nato never to recognize Kyiv.

The United States and the European Union have threatened Russia with sanctions if it attacks Ukraine. Moscow, which remains Europe's biggest energy supplier despite sanctions since seizing Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, has largely dismissed the new sanctions as empty threats.