BRUSSELS – Archyde.com
French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday in Brussels that he seeks further talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin within the next 48 to 72 hours on the situation in Ukraine, and an initiative to help residents leave the besieged city of Mariupol.
Macron said he was coordinating his efforts with Greece and Turkey, and hoped to persuade Russia to allow the evacuation. “There was a specific discussion today with the mayor of Mariupol,” Macron told reporters after the European Union summit in Brussels. There is coordination between us and after that we will negotiate with the Russians. I will have a conversation with President Putin in the next 48 to 72 hours to finalize the details and the formalities. It is urgent.”
Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, which had a population of 400,000 before the war, is among the Ukrainian cities hardest hit by the war. It is believed that tens of thousands of the city’s residents remain trapped with little food, electricity and heating after the city turned them into rubble.