France’s President Emmanuel Macron warned Sunday against a verbal “escalation” of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, after US President Joe Biden branded Vladimir Putin a “butcher” who “cannot remain in power”.
In an speech from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Biden blasted Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” the US leader said, before the White House clarified that Washington was not seeking regime change.
The Kremlin reacted in fury over Biden’s comments which it said narrows the window for bilateral relations, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now into a second month.
“I would not use that kind of comment because I am still discussing with President Putin,” Emmanuel Macron told broadcaster France 3 on Sunday. He added that he saw his task as “achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of (Russian) troops by diplomatic means.”
“If we want to do that, we can’t escalate either in words or actions.”
The French president said he would speak to Putin in the next two days to organise the evacuation of civilians from the heavily bombarded port city of Mariupol.
Mariupol, in the region of Donetsk, has borne the brunt of Russia’s assaults, and residents who managed to flee have recounted harrowing scenes of death and destruction.
Ukraine was making a new push to get civilians out of the city on Sunday, with an aid route agreement for people to leave by cars or on evacuation buses, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Several attempts at establishing safe routes for civilians to flee have collapsed as both sides trade blame for violating temporary ceasefires.
“There is a lot of cynicism from the Russian side on this question,” Macron said.
“We’re looking with the Ukrainian authorities in the city of Mariupol at how to organize the evacuation of everyone who wants to flee.”
He added that “we have to do it quickly, in the very next days” given the intensity of combat and bombardments in the city.
