Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy says diplomacy is the “only way” to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. In an interview published in the French daily Le Figaro on Wednesday, Sarkozy called on Europe to “clarify its strategy” and seek a compromise with Russia instead of pursuing its “outlandish idea” of financing a war without fighting it. And stressed: “Nothing will be possible without agreement and we run the risk of derailing the situation at any moment. This powder keg can have serious consequences,” he said.
Politico also reports that Sarkozy called Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine “serious” and a “failure”, but stressed that Russia is “Europe’s neighbor”. and despite the misgivings in their shared history, “we need them and they need us”.
French President Emmanuel Macron himself dismissed warnings that Putin was planning to invade Ukraine just before the war, and held lengthy talks with the Russian president during the first weeks of the invasion to persuade him to back down of. He has since taken a tough stance on Russia and vowed to support Ukraine until victory.
Sarkozy distanced himself from Macron’s stance on Ukraine, saying that Macron’s earlier “intuition was correct” but that he had failed to act “due to pressure from Eastern European countries”.
