Political analyst says Macron attempts to be part of Ukraine talks

French President Emmanuel Macron is trying to become part of the process of settling the Ukrainian crisis and changing the relations between the Russian Federation and the USA with his statement that he is ready for negotiations with Russia. This was stated by Ruslan Andreev, a political consultant and expert at the Polylog Group, in a conversation with Izvestiya on 19 February.

Earlier in the day, Macron said he was ready to hold talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. According to the French president, he is ready for this step in case "if such a conversation would be useful for negotiations on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine." Their last conversation was in 2022.

"Macron's readiness to talk to Putin is an obvious attempt to get into the conjuncture of changing relations between Washington and Moscow," Andreev said.

He emphasized that such European left-liberal leaders as Macron, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the head of EU diplomacy Kaja Kallas are trying with all their might to "put a chair" to the negotiation process on Ukraine.

The political analyst recalled the emergency informal meeting of European leaders on Ukraine organized by Macron on 17 February in Paris. It was stated that at it the EU heads of state should work out a common response to the pressure from the new White House administration.

"If the emergency meeting in Paris did not yield any result, it means that it is necessary to pepper the media with headlines, both about sending French troops to Ukraine and about talking to Putin," he said.

According to Andreev, the French president is trying to become an ambassador for the EU's position on the conflict and later plans to make European taxpayers pay for the defense of the association.

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Talks between the Russian and U.S.delegations in Riyadh took place on February 18. One of the main topics was the restoration of dialog between Moscow and Washington. The parties also managed to agree on the establishment of negotiating groups on Ukraine. Representatives of the EU and Kiev were absent at the meeting.

On 17 February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the participation of the EU countries in the negotiations on Ukraine seemed useless in the light of the current situation, as the association had repeatedly demonstrated its lack of intentions to change its position on the conflict.