(Washington) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he invited Emmanuel Macron to visit Ukraine to see for himself that Russian forces are committing “genocide”, a term that his French counterpart has so far refused to use .
Posted at 12:05 p.m.
“Regarding Emmanuel, I spoke to him,” President Zelensky said in an interview with the American channel CNN conducted on Friday and broadcast on Sunday. “I think he wants to ensure that Russia engages in a dialogue”, he added, to explain the refusal of the French leader to denounce a “genocide” in Ukraine, unlike the president of the United States Joe Biden.
The Ukrainian president initially deemed this refusal “very hurtful” on Wednesday.
“I told him that I wanted him to understand that this is not a war, that it is nothing but genocide. I invited him to come when he has the opportunity,” Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN. “He will come, and he will see, and I am sure he will understand. »
Emmanuel Macron, in the middle of the campaign for his re-election in the presidential election next Sunday in France, explained Thursday that the word “genocide” should in his opinion be “qualified by lawyers, not by politicians” and that “enter into the ‘verbal escalation’ was ‘not helping Ukraine’.
In his interview broadcast on Sunday, the Ukrainian president also said he wanted Joe Biden to come to Ukraine, who surprised him by saying this week that Russian forces were committing “genocide”.
“I think he will come,” “but the decision is up to him, of course, it depends on the security situation,” he said. “But I think he is the leader of the United States and for that he should come and see. »
“We would be happy to see him in our country, and it would be an important message of support for us,” added the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba in an interview with another American channel, CBS, also broadcast on Sunday.
According to him, “a personal meeting between the two presidents”, Biden and Zelensky, “could also pave the way for new transfers of American arms to Ukraine and for discussions on a possible political settlement of this conflict”.
The US government is considering sending an envoy to Kyiv, but the White House has so far ruled out a high-risk trip by the president himself.