On 3 March, the Presidents of France and Russia shared a telephone conversation. During the conversation, Putin said that he had not abandoned his intention to take over the whole of Ukraine, BFM TV channel reports.
Emmanuel Macron was pessimistic after an hour and a half of telephone conversation. The President of France believes that in Ukraine, “the worst is yet to come”.
According to the President of France, Putin expressed “great determination” to continue the offensive, the goal of which is to “take over” the whole of Ukraine.
During this conversion the Russian President informed his French colleague that the Russian Army’s operation is developing “according to Moscow’s plan” and that “it will be worse” if Ukrainians do not agree to the aggressor's demands.
In a conversation with Macron, Vladimir Putin confirmed that he intends to "denazify" Ukraine, something he has stated since the beginning of the war.
"President Macron’s intuition suggests that the worst is yet to come, given what President Putin told him... Russia's ambitions are to seize all of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin's military goals have not changed," cited the channel from a French government source.
Today, on 3 March, in his address to the French, the President of France Emmanuel Macron called Russia the aggressor, rather than the victim of aggression. He also deemed Russia’s statement that it “fights nazism in Ukraine” a lie.
The day before, Russian Deputy Security Council Chairman, former President, and former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev responded to a statement by French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who said the EU would wage a total economic war against Russia and cause its economy to collapse owing to its military aggression in Ukraine. Medvedev threatened France with a real war in response to an economic war.