French President Emmanuel Macron thinks “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine after talking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to multiple reports.
A senior French official said Macron’s warning came after the two leaders spoke for 90 minutes, which did not yield any diplomatic progress, The Washington Post reported. The official said Putin was determined to carry out the ongoing war in Ukraine until “the end,” the paper reported.
Putin also told Macron that Russia’s goals in Ukraine would be “fulfilled” and that the war was going “according to plan,” Reuters reported, citing a statement issued by the Kremlin. “This conversation is, unfortunately, an occasion to hear that President Putin will continue military interventions and to go all the way,” according to the Élysée source.
“[The call] allowed the President of the Republic to return to the disagreements we have with Russia, to plead for the diplomatic alternative to military operations, to tell the truth to President Putin about the way we see his war in Ukraine but also the consequences it will have for Russia in the long term,” the source continued.
The Élysée source said “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine following Macron’s phone call with Putin. “Without making a prediction, we should expect the worst is yet to come. The (French) president said so yesterday as well. There is nothing in what Putin said today that should reassure us,” the source said.
