Vladimir Putin did not show a willingness to end the war with Ukraine during a call on Saturday with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz, a French presidency official said.
Scholz and Macron called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine during the 75-minute phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, a German government spokesman added.
Their demand echoed a statement made by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, earlier on Saturday, who said negotiations must begin with a suspension of hostilities.
The Kremlin readout of the call said Putin briefed Macron and Scholz about the state of play in negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv and responded to their concerns about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. It did not mention a ceasefire and accused Ukraine of using civilians as human shields.
The participants agreed to say nothing further about the substance of the phone call, according to the German spokesperson, who added: “The conversation is part of ongoing international efforts to end the war in Ukraine.”
Crisis talks between Moscow and Kyiv, which had been conducted in person in Belarus, have continued via a video link, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, according to the RIA news agency.
Speaking at a news briefing, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams had started discussing concrete topics rather than exchanging ultimatums.
Stating that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed since the invasion began, he claimed the conflict meant some small Ukrainian towns now no longer existed.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine could not stop fighting but was upholding a ceasefire around an agreed “humanitarian corridor” out of the besieged southern port of Mariupol and called on Russia to do the same.
He further suggested negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end the war could be held in Jerusalem.
He said he hoped the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, would have a “positive influence” on peace talks.
Bennett visited Moscow on 5 March, spending three hours with Putin before travelling on to Berlin to brief Scholz. He has spoken to Zelenskiy on multiple occasions since.
