French Foreign Ministry Highlights Progress on De-Escalation After Macron-Putin Meeting

PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2022) The meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow made it possible to achieve progress on de-escalation in Ukraine, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune said.

"He (Macron) had a long conversation with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as a result of which, I think... he achieved progress. First, in terms of de-escalation and preventing the situation from worsening," Beaune said on LCI tv channel.

According to him, the talk was also about the Russian-Belarusian exercises; Macron received Putin's assurances that after the maneuvers in Belarus, the troops would return to their places of permanent deployment.

"Putin made a commitment that after military exercises in Belarus, where tens of thousands of troops are stationed, the troops.

.. will be withdrawn. This should last 10 days - between February 10 and 20," the French secretary of state said.

Macron arrived in Moscow on Monday, where he held five-hour talks with Putin. On Tuesday, the French leader met in Kiev with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Kiev and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in "aggressive actions" by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly rejected such accusations, stating that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and that claims about "Russian aggression" are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders.