Putin wants to ‘negate’ Ukraine as sovereign country: France

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin no longer accepted Ukraine’s independence under international law.

“President Putin in his speech (on Monday) declared in a sense the negation of Ukraine as a sovereign country,” he told reporters after talks with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin.

Le Drian said Putin’s decision to recognise two breakaway regions in Ukraine smacked of “revisionism” and a bid to “reinvent history”.

“In general, he is not keeping his promises, neither in public nor in private, whether to President (Emmanuel) Macron or to Chancellor (Olaf) Scholz,” he said, referring to the French and German leaders.

“When or how should we believe what President Putin says? I don’t know if anyone knows.”

When asked about the likelihood of a full Russian invasion, Le Drian said that with “140,000 (Russian) troops” massed on Ukraine’s borders “anything is possible, including the worst”.

Baerbock accused Putin of “lying” about his intentions in Ukraine in talks with Western leaders in recent days.

“When you do the opposite of what you said a week ago then you didn’t tell the truth or, in plain German: you lied,” she told reporters.

“It is the Russian president who took the decision to completely violate international law, to trample on international law, and to contribute to the fact that we are now no longer talking about shared peace in Europe but rather how we can continue to avoid a war.”

Baerbock said the West was “prepared for all scenarios” including a full Russian invasion of Ukraine, adding that sanctions already agreed with European partners “can be increased at any time.”