After a tense phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron fears “the worst is to come” in Ukraine.
According to an aide of the French leader, Putin is intent on seizing “the whole country” of Ukraine as violence continues on the streets of the county under siege.
“The expectation of the president is that the worst is to come, given what President Putin told him,” the senior aide told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
“There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation,” the aide added, adding that Mr Macron told Mr Putin he was making a “grave mistake”.
Macron later tweeted that in the conversation, Mr Putin showed he “refuses … to stop his attacks against Ukraine”. Mr Putin “wanted to seize control of the whole of Ukraine … he will, in his own words, carry out his operation to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine to the end”.
In response to Mr Putin’s claim of “de-Nazification”, Mr Macron replied that “either you are telling yourself stories or you’re looking for a pretext”, according to his aide.
“In any case, what you’re saying does not match with reality and can in no way justify the violence of what you’re doing today, nor that your country is going to pay a very high price because it will end up an isolated, weakened country under sanctions for a long time,” said Mr Macron, who reportedly told Mr Putin he was “delusional”.
Putin also vowed that he would “destroy ‘anti-Russia’ rhetoric created by the West”, while also claiming that the people of Ukraine had been “brainwashed” and that Russian soldiers were the “real heroes”.
The invasion of Ukraine began over a week ago, with at least 9,000 death reported and thousands of Ukrainians left with no choice other than to flee their home country.
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