France's president Emmanuel Macron. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg
“One of the essential points we must address — as President Putin has always said — is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors, and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia,” Macron said.
Officials from Ukraine, Finland and the Baltic states condemned the statement in no uncertain terms.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, questioned providing security guarantees “to a terrorist and killer state.” “Ukrainian blood on Putin’s hands will not bother business as usual?” he wrote in Twitter.
Alexander Stubb, the former prime minister of Finland, said he fundamentally disagreed with Macron.
“The only security guarantees we should focus on are essentially non-Russian,” he tweeted. “Russia needs first to guarantee that it does not attack others. Only then can we begin discussions on [European security].”
Artis Pabriks, Latvia’s deputy prime minister, told the Financial Times that: “The idea that the Russian invasion [of] Ukraine can be ended by the west giving security guarantees to Russia is falling into the trap of Putin’s narrative that the west and Ukraine are responsible for this war and Russia is [an] innocent victim.”
Linas Linkevicius, former Lithuanian foreign minister, tweeted: “Russia has all security guarantees if it doesn’t attack, annex or occupy its neighbours. If anyone wants to create a new security architecture that allows a terrorist state to continue its methods of intimidation, they should think again.”
Urmas Paet, current Estonian member of the European Parlament said that Ukraine's future can be planned only after four conditions are met. "First - free Ukraine. 2nd - International Tribunal for Russian war criminals, 3rd - Russian money to rebuild Ukraine, 4th - Russia's regret and apology."
