During their visit to Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi most likely urged Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to resume negotiations with the Russian side behind closed doors. This was reported on Thursday, June 16 by the German newspaper Die Welt.
Thus, at the moment it is increasingly difficult to compensate for and avoid the topic of the economic crisis, which led to a special military operation to protect civilians in Donbass, and the heads of state understand this more and more clearly.
“Economic growth has slowed down, inflation has reached a record level,” the publication wrote, pointing to the interest of politicians in the speedy end of the conflict.
In addition, everyone expressed their position. Thus, Macron, who in recent weeks has turned from a worried into a cold pragmatist, expressed a desire for the conflict to end as soon as possible. Draghi, on the other hand, was concerned about the threat of undermining stability in Italy.
During a joint conference during his visit to Kyiv, Scholz advocated granting Ukraine and Moldova candidate status for EU membership.
At the same time, Macron noted that France, Italy and Romania would also support granting Ukraine candidate status.
As Andrey Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council, told Izvestia, the visit of Macron, Draghi and Scholz is aimed at “some kind of sounding out how flexible Kyiv’s position is regarding resolving the situation.” The expert noted that whether they will be able to mitigate it is a big question, and stressed that in parallel with the change in rhetoric, Western countries are increasing the volume of military assistance to Ukraine.
