At the time of negotiations, Emmanuel Macron warns against the "ogre" Vladimir Putin

"Today, Russia is, in fact, continuing the war, it is intensifying it," declared the French president after a summit with Donald Trump and several European leaders on Monday at the White House to align the Western camp in the upcoming negotiations with Moscow.

"I personally have the greatest doubts about the reality of the Russian president's desire for peace because as long as he thinks he can win through war, he will do so," he said.

He wants to "take as much territory as possible, weaken Ukraine and have a Ukraine that is not viable alone or within the Russian fold," he insisted.

More broadly, Vladimir Putin constitutes a "threat to Europeans," insists Emmanuel Macron, who has increased his attacks on the Kremlin's leader in recent days.

"Even for its own survival, it needs to continue eating. That's it. And so it's a predator, it's an ogre at our gates," he said in an interview from Washington with the LCI channel.

Beliefs and Reality

Europeans also fear that Donald Trump may be tempted to make a pact with Vladimir Putin too quickly, at the expense of Ukraine, in order to secure a peace agreement that he can claim credit for and to normalize relations with Moscow as quickly as possible.

The summit meeting on Friday in Alaska between the leaders of the two largest nuclear powers was far from reassuring from this point of view, with its bouts of pleasantry and a penchant for Russian rhetoric, and one notable absentee: Ukraine.

The "return" meeting on Monday in Washington between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, flanked by six European leaders, brought some relief in this regard.

The United States has for the first time shown itself ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, alongside the Europeans, to ensure that Russia does not repeat its attacks.

Vladimir Putin, who denies any military presence of NATO countries in his sphere of influence, conceded in Anchorage that Ukraine's security must "be guaranteed," while being careful not to specify how.

"President Trump was convinced that he could quickly conclude a peace treaty with President Putin. Events will show us that," summarizes Emmanuel Macron, refusing to "declare victory" too quickly.

"Not in humiliation"

And by immediately calling for pressure to be put back on Russia, with more sanctions stifling its economy, if it only sought to gain time on the military front.

In the first months of the war, the French president had caused consternation, particularly among Eastern Europeans, by his stubborn desire to dialogue with Vladimir Putin and his calls not to "humiliate" Russia.

"Tomorrow we will have peace to build, let us never forget that (...) But this will not be done through negation, nor through the exclusion of one or the other, nor even through humiliation," he declared on May 9, 2022.

A precept that the master of the Kremlin is far from applying, three years later, even if he should finally meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky soon after having long opposed it.

The French president now claims to have extensive experience with Vladimir Putin, with whom he continued to talk for months after the start of the war, and believes he knows "how he works."

"He wants Ukraine to surrender," he reiterated before the Washington summit meeting.

Echoing this, Russia warned Tuesday that any potential peace agreement would have to guarantee its "security" and that of Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine, a pretext already used to launch its invasion in 2022.