French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called for tougher sanctions against Russia if its leader Vladimir Putin does not take steps toward peace with Ukraine.
“President Trump believes we can reach an agreement and believes that President Putin also wants a peace agreement. But if this process is ultimately rejected, we are also ready to say that we need to tighten sanctions,” Macron said, quoted by AFP.
He pointed to recent secondary sanctions imposed by the Trump administration against India, which has become a major buyer of Russian energy supplies, “which had a big effect.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington on 18 August, where he met with US President Donald Trump. There was also a meeting between Trump and Zelensky with key European allies including Macron.
This meeting came three days after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held talks in Alaska on 15. The main topic of the talks was ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, but no specific agreements were reported.
Trump has previously said that Ukraine would have to cede territory. But Ukraine insists on defending all the territory that Russia seized by force.
Asked by reporters if Trump had said concessions were necessary before any US security guarantees for Ukraine, Macron said, “No, that was not discussed at all. We are far from that.”