Ukraine, Baltics rebuke Macron for suggesting 'security guarantees' for
Russia
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[December 05, 2022]
(Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron's suggestion
the West should consider Russia's need for security guarantees if Moscow
agrees to talks to end the war in Ukraine unleashed a storm of criticism
in Kyiv and its Baltic allies over the weekend.
In an interview with French TV station TF1, Macron said that Europe
needs to prepare its future security architecture and also think "how to
give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's top aide, Mykhailo Podolyak,
said that it is the world that needs security guarantees from Russia,
not the other way around.
"Civilized world needs 'security guarantees' from barbaric intentions of
post-Putin Russia," Podolyak said on Twitter on Sunday.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and
Defence Council, said a "denunclearized and demilitarized" Russia would
be the best guarantee of peace not only for Ukraine, but also for the
world.
"Someone wants to provide security guarantees to a terrorist and killer
state?" Danilov wrote on Twitter.
"Instead of Nuremberg - to sign an agreement with Russia and shake
hands?"
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Dec/05/images/ads/current/napa_sda_HFH_2022.png)
The trials in Nuremberg to prosecute Nazi war criminals after World War
Two are seen today seen as the forerunners of tribunals like the
International Criminal Court in The Hague. Moscow denies allegations its
forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
After several rounds of talks earlier in the war, Kyiv and Moscow have
not met to negotiate the end of the conflict for months. Kyiv says peace
talks are only possible if Russia halts its attacks and withdraws from
all Ukrainian territories it seized.
But the Kremlin said the West must recognise Moscow's declared
annexation in September of "new territories" before any talks with
Putin.
Macron last week held talks with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington
on the war in Ukraine. Biden said afterwards that there were no
conditions for U.S.-Russia discussions about ending the conflict.
U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, however,
said Putin's insistence on recognition of the declared annexations
indicated he was not serious about peace talks.
"Diplomacy is obviously everyone's objective but you have to have a
willing partner," she told reporters after meeting Zelenskiy in Kyiv on
the weekend. "And it's very clear ... that Putin is not sincere or ready
for that."
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![](../images/120522PIX/news_p93.jpg)
French President Emmanuel Macron and
U.S. President Joe Biden stand together onstage during an official
State Arrival Ceremony for President Macron on the South Lawn of the
White House in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2022. REUTERS/Elizabeth
Frantz/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Dec/05/images/ads/current/2022%20Business%20Directory%20Cover%20lda%202022.png)
Zelenskiy has not commented on Macron's suggestion.
"IT WILL NOT FLY"
Macron's suggestion of security guarantees for Moscow has also
spurred criticism in some Baltic countries that border Russia and
see it as growing threat.
Former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb said he
"fundamentally" disagreed with Macron.
"The only security guarantees we should focus on are essentially
non-Russian," he said on his Twitter account. "Russia needs first to
guarantee that it does not attack others."
Lithuania's former foreign minister, Linas Linkevicus, said that
Russia has security guarantees as long as it does not "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, it will (n)ot fly," Linkevicus said on Twitter.
In Kyiv, David Arakhamia, a lawmaker and member of Ukraine's
negotiation team with Russia when negotiations were taking place,
said Ukraine is ready to provide Russia with security guarantees as
long as it met four conditions.
"For this it is enough: leave the territory of our country, pay
reparations, punish all war criminals; voluntarily surrender nuclear
weapons," Arakhamia said on the Telegram messaging app.
"After that, we are ready to sit down at the negotiation table and
talk about security guarantees."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Dec/05/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png)
Macron and Zelenskiy have held frequent talks during the more than
nine months of war, and Zelenskiy has thanked the French president
for trying to find diplomatic solutions while also rejecting
Macron's suggestions that Kyiv could be ready to compromise.
In May, Macron was also widely criticised for saying Russia should
not be humiliated so that when the fighting stops in Ukraine a
diplomatic solution can be found.
(Writing in Melbourne by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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