Kremlin rules out France's role as moderator of Ukraine peace initiatives

France cannot act as a broker in resolving the Ukraine conflict, as it is a de facto party to this conflict on Kyiv’s side, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the ‘Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin’ program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

An excerpt from the program was posted by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel on June 3, TASS reports.

"France can hardly be defined as a neutral state, which is the one that can claim to be a moderator, such as, say, Brazil, China, or African nations. France can no longer do this because France is a de facto active participant in this conflict, and a participant on the side of Ukraine," Peskov said commenting on French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to hold a peace summit on Ukraine in Paris.

Peskov pointed out that Paris should realise that, adding that so far he has neither seen nor heard the French president’s official statements on the peace summit.

"Let’s wait for clarifications and then we will understand what Mr. Macron has in mind," the Kremlin spokesman said.

On May 31, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing European diplomats, that Macron had suggested to his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky that Paris host a summit on the Ukraine conflict. According to the daily, there is not a definite list of potential participants in the summit yet, but European officials are seeking to bring in Brazil, India, China and other non-Western countries.