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| French President Emmanuel Macron listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a video conference in June 2020. © Reuters pool |
International Military - It is reported that French President Emmanuel Macron held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two discussed efforts to defuse the conflict in Ukraine. The two had a telephone conversation that lasted 105 minutes. The two discussed a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine.
They also agreed on "the need to support a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and do everything to achieve it," said Elysee, He also added that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov would meet in the coming days.
Meanwhile Russian agencies reported that the two ministers would speak on Monday local time. Russian agencies later reported from Moscow that the two ministers would speak on Monday.
Putin and Macron said they would work intensively to allow the Trilateral Contact Group, which includes Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, to meet.
"In the next few hours with the aim of making all interested parties commit to a ceasefire on the contact line, in eastern Ukraine where government forces and pro-Russian separatists face each other," he said.
"Intense diplomatic work will take place in the coming days," Macron's office said, with several consultations taking place in the French capital.
Macron and Putin also agreed that talks between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany should continue to implement the Minsk protocol, which in 2014 had called for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
The two also agreed to work towards a new peace and security in Europe. "The high-level meeting with the aim of defining a new peace and security in Europe," Macron's office said.
In a Sunday phone call, Putin told Macron that he intended to withdraw Russian troops from Belarus as soon as the ongoing military exercises there were completed, the Elysee also said.