Despite ruling out talks with Moscow, the Ukrainian leader seemingly uses his French counterpart as a go-between
French President Emmanuel Macron’s phone calls with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, mainly took place “at the request of President Zelensky” of Ukraine, a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry stated on Saturday. Zelensky has publicly declared that he will never speak to Putin in person, and has made peace talks with the Russian leader illegal.
“Mr. Macron calls President Putin mainly at the request of President [Vladimir] Zelensky, and always in coordination with our allies to maintain a channel for dialogue,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said during an interview with RTVI.
Kiev has never admitted that Zelensky presses his Western backers into speaking to Putin, and the Ukrainian leader himself signed a decree in October forbidding negotiations with Moscow unless “another president of…
