“We are facing a wall, a siege logic, which is likely to last a long time. So in this situation, I think the worst is still ahead of us”estimated the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who said “pessimistic”, this Sunday on France Inter. According to him, “small spaces” of hope “seem to close with the reinforcement of Russian military actions and with the blocking of discussions”.
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On the military level, Jean-Yves Le Drian considered that “the attack of the Russian forces is now global on the whole territory”. “Nowhere in Ukraine today are we safe from bombs, the whole of Ukraine is now under fire from Russian forces. We are bombing indiscriminately”he continued whether it is a military site, like this base bombed on the night of Saturday March 12 to Sunday March 13 near the Polish border killing at least 35 people, or these hospitals, civilian sites targeted “to scare and sow dread”.
.@JY_LeDrian “Nowhere in Ukraine today are we safe from bombs. All of Ukraine is under fire from Russian forces.” #politicalquestions pic.twitter.com/n9sc2VeXeH
– France Inter (@franceinter) March 13, 2022
“I also see that nothing is moving”added the Minister of Foreign Affairs, detailing the “seating logic” set up by Russia. “It’s a well-tested strategy”according to Jean-Yves Le Drian. “We bomb. Then we make believe that we are putting in humanitarian corridors, which we do not necessarily respect, and we accuse the other of not respecting them. We say that those who have not come out are terrorists, nationalists, neo-Nazis, so they are guilty, and we hit back. And we open negotiations which are generally fake negotiations and we accuse the others of leaving them”detailed the Minister.
From a diplomatic point of view, Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced discussions which “do not advance” between Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Vladimir Putin. According to him, “President Putin is stuck in his maximalism, he is stuck in his war aims, does not budge, acts in the form of a diktat that he wants to impose Ukraine”.
“Vladimir Putin is making revisionism at gunpoint.”
Jean-Yves Le Drianat franceinfo
The boss of the Quai d’Orsay mentioned “an authoritarian drift” inside Russia and an “expansionist will” outside its borders. Jean-Yves Le Drian thus reiterated the need for a ceasefire, considering that we “can’t argue with a gun to his head”. It is according to him, “the prerequisite of everything” and “This is what Emmanuel Macron asked President Putin very insistently on Saturday”.
If France continues discussions “stubbornly”with Russia, despite the current deadlock in negotiations, it is in anticipation of when “it will be possible to talk to each other”, said Jean-Yves Le Drian. According to him, the sanctions have this purpose: “It is a question of raising the cost of the war with regard to Vladimir Putin so that he is forced to arbitrate between what it costs for his country, for his people, and the opening of real discussions” .
The Minister thus recalled the three axes around which the support for the Ukrainians revolves: the sanctions, “a new train is getting ready” in order to prohibit, in particular, the import of iron, steel and luxury goods from Russia, military support, namely the sending of arms “defensive and lethal”, and financial aid. Asked about the possibility of adding to this an embargo on Russian gas and oil imports, Jean-Yves Le Drian assured that there is no “no taboo” and “everything is on the table”using the words Emmanuel Macron, recalling in passing that “we are not at war with Russia but that Russia is at war with Ukraine”.
.@JY_LeDrian : “The Russian forces have returned to a logic of war which I call siege warfare, as in Kharkiv, Mariupol, Odessa and which we risk seeing in Kiev. Faced with this situation, the worst is ahead of us .” #politicalquestions pic.twitter.com/0mUKrAb4DN
– France Inter (@franceinter) March 13, 2022