French President, Emmanuel Macron has announced that European nations would implement new sanctions against Russia within days if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Naija News reports that Macron stated during an interview with TF1 television on Tuesday that, ‘Our intention is to impose sanctions’ should Russia disregard the ceasefire proposed by Ukraine’s European allies.
It is worth noting that on Saturday, the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, and Poland urged Russia to accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire beginning Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested that Russian leader Vladimir Putin personally participate in the Russia-Ukraine discussions scheduled in Turkey on Thursday; however, Moscow has yet to confirm its representatives.
Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union has enacted 16 rounds of sanctions against Russia, with a 17th round set to be approved next Tuesday.
Notably, the financial sector and hydrocarbons have largely been exempt from these sanctions. Macron further emphasised that there is ‘no legal framework’ for seizing frozen Russian assets, deeming it ‘not a good solution.’
The French president said that Ukraine acknowledges it cannot retake all the territory seized by Russia since 2014 and warned that the West did not want a “Third World War.”
“We must help Ukraine defend itself but we do not want to unleash a Third World War,” Macron said. “The war must cease and Ukraine must be in the best possible situation to go into negotiations,” he added.
“Even the Ukrainians have the clear-sightedness to say they do not have the capacity to retake everything that has been taken since 2014,” he added.
Prior to the 2022 full-scale invasion, Russia in 2014 annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and backed forces which seized parts of two eastern Ukrainian regions.
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