Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

UKRAINE

France says Macron, Putin agree to work for east Ukraine ceasefire

French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Sunday agreed to work for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, Macron's office said.

Published: 20 February 2022 13:56 CET
Updated: 20 February 2022 16:32 CET
France says Macron, Putin agree to work for east Ukraine ceasefire
(COMBO/FILES) This combination of file photographs created on September 14, 2020, shows (L) Russian President Vladimir Putin taking part in an All-Russian open class titled "To Remember Means To Know" via video conference at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow on September 1, 2020 and (R) France's President Emmanuel Macron attending a news conference at the Pine Residence, the official residence of the French ambassador to Lebanon, in Beirut on September 1, 2020. - A telephone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine got underway on February 20, 2022, as planned, Macron's office said. The call, described by the French side as part of a last-ditch effort to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine, began at 11 AM (1000 GMT), the presidency said. It comes two weeks after Macron went to Moscow to persuade Putin to hold back from an invasion. (Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev and GONZALO FUENTES / various sources / AFP)

In a phone conversation lasting 105 minutes, they also agreed on “the need to favour a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and to do everything to achieve one”, the Elysee said, adding that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov would meet “in the coming days”.

Putin and Macron said they would work “intensely” to allow the TrilateralContact Group, which includes Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, to meet “in the next few hours with the aim of getting all interested parties to commit to a ceasefire at the contact line” in eastern Ukraine where government troops and pro-Russian separatists are facing each other.

“Intense diplomatic work will take place in the coming days,” Macron’soffice said, with several consultations to take place in the French capital.

Macron and Putin also agreed that talks between Russia, Ukraine, France andGermany should resume to implement the so-called Minsk protocol which in 2014had already called for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

Both also agreed to work towards “a high-level meeting with the aim ofdefining a new peace and security order in Europe”, Macron’s office said.

SEE ALSO: Putin tells Macron invasion claims are ‘provocative speculation’

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

Published: 16 June 2024 08:44 CEST
New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

SHOW COMMENTS