War in Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron’s call to “not humiliate Russia” makes waves – franceinfo

By reiterating his call to “not humiliate Russia”, Friday June 3, Emmanuel Macron triggered a new wave of criticism and misunderstanding, at a time when France intends to mediate in the Ukrainian conflict. “Calls to avoid humiliating Russia can only humiliate France (…) We would all do better to focus on how to put Russia in its place”, immediately replied the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba. Enough to throw a new chill between Paris and kyiv while Emmanuel Macron, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU until July 1, is under pressure from Ukraine, which has been waiting for his visit since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24. The reactions are also strong in the countries of Eastern Europe which feel the most threatened by their powerful Russian neighbor. “The French president is still looking for ways to spare the war criminal Putin from humiliation. What would he say to this little girl in Ukraine?” asks the chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Marko Mihkelson, about his Facebook page, above a photo showing a leg amputated child on her hospital bed. The head of Latvian diplomacy, Edgars Rinkevics, for his part was ironic about the dialogue that Emmanuel Macron continues to have with the master of the Kremlin by quoting, on Twitter, a Russian love song from the Soviet era (“ I may have forgotten my pride. How much I want to hear the voice.”). “Putin will only negotiate when his army can no longer advance, humiliated or not. Macron should focus on that,” also reacted, scathingly, Barack Obama’s ex-ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, now a professor. at Stanford University. Emmanuel Macron places himself on his side in the long term, when “peace will return” and when “new balances of security” will have to be built in Europe. It will then be necessary to “never give in to the temptation of humiliation or the spirit of revenge”, he said on May 9 in Strasbourg. The Head of State then alludes to the “diktat” imposed in 1919 by the winners of the First World War on Germany, with heavy territorial losses and reparations, which will lead to a new world war in 1939-45.