Russia's defense minister warned France against sending troops to Ukraine in a rare phone call on Wednesday, saying Russia was ready to participate in talks to end the conflict.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu told French Defense Minister Subbastien Lecorne that if Paris implements its statement regarding the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine, France itself will have problems. He said it would happen. Details were not explained.
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The talks come after French President Emmanuel Macron said in February that he could not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine.
The telephone conversation marked the first such contact between Russian and French defense ministers since October 2022.
“Russia is open to dialogue on Ukraine,” Shoigu said, stressing that peace talks scheduled for Geneva are meaningless without Russia's involvement. It added that future negotiations could be based on the draft text discussed during the Russia-Ukraine talks. Istanbul in March 2022.
According to media reports, the draft agreement, negotiated in Istanbul weeks after Russia sent troops to Ukraine, envisaged Ukraine giving up NATO membership and remaining neutral. No final agreement was reached and negotiations broke down soon after.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said in a phone call reading on Wednesday that Lecorne responded to the March 22 attack on a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow that killed 145 people in the deadliest attack on mainland Russia in decades. He expressed his condolences.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials have attacked Ukraine and the West, despite vehement denials from Kiev, an Islamic State affiliate claiming responsibility, and advance warnings from the United States to Moscow of an impending attack. are trying to link this to this attack.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, during the phone conversation, Lecorne tried to convince Shoigu that Ukraine and its Western allies had nothing to do with the concert hall attack, but Shoigu said Moscow had no information on Ukraine's traces of organizing the attack. claimed to have.
The ministry relayed what Shoigu told Lecorne. I hope French special forces aren't involved.