French President Emmanuel Macron said on April 28 that “the next two weeks will be key in trying to achieve a ceasefire” in the Russia-Ukraine war. He said those words in an interview with Paris-Match magazine, Liberation reports.
“In the next eight to ten days, we will increase pressure on Russia,” Macron said, believing that he had ‘convinced the Americans of the possibility of escalating threats and possibly sanctions’ against Moscow.
According to Macron, “The next two weeks will be key to try to implement this truce” that the United States is seeking.
Macron explained that he spoke with the American president “on the night of Wednesday to Thursday to urge him to take a tougher stance” against Vladimir Putin.
The French president also returned to the Trump-Zelensky interview at the Pope’s funeral in the Vatican. He assured that he “wasn’t scheduled” to “see President Trump” in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, but that they finally “exchanged a few minutes.” “I repeated to him, ‘You have to be much tougher with the Russians,’” he reported.
According to Macron, the third seat initially planned for the meeting between the American and Ukrainian heads of state in the basilica, finally withdrawn, was intended not for him but for the interpreter, but the exchange ultimately took place in English.
“We must be ready, together with the Americans, to raise the tone towards Russia in order to achieve this ceasefire,” the French president emphasized.
“I believe that thanks to this meeting in the Vatican, we managed to put pressure on Russia again. This was a desirable result because it was not right to put pressure only on Ukraine,” he said.
“The aim is for the Americans to be able to get to Kyiv fairly quickly, for us to be able to establish the conditions for a ceasefire, and for us to work in depth on measures to accompany this ceasefire to preserve it on the Ukrainian side. Together with the Americans, we must be ready to take a tougher line with Russia to obtain this ceasefire,” the French president insisted.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that the three-day truce announced by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin is not enough; a just and lasting peace is needed.
In response to Putin’s announcement of a truce, the White House said that Donald Trump wants to see a permanent ceasefire.
