Vladimir Putin has mocked Emmanuel Macron, warning him that ‘some people forget how Napoleon’s Russian campaign ended,’ after the French President indicated he would be willing to use his country’s nuclear deterrent to protect Europe.
France’s Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Russian Empire in 1812 in a disastrous six-month military campaign that ended in Russian victory and resulted in some half a million casualties on the French side.
Putin’s warning, which did not refer to Macron by name, came a day after the French leader called Moscow ‘a threat to Europe’ and raised the idea of putting other countries under France’s nuclear umbrella.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hit back today, saying the Kremlin viewed Macron’s comments about extending France’s nuclear deterrent to other European countries as a ‘threat’.
Lavrov also reaffirmed his country’s opposition to European forces being deployed in Ukraine as peacekeepers if an accord was made to halt the conflict.
He again compared Macron to Napoleon as well as Adolf Hitler, saying that unlike the French emperor and Nazi leader Macron did not openly say he wanted to conquer Russia, before adding that he ‘evidently wants the same thing’.
Continuing his mocking tirade, Lavrov stated that Macron is making ‘stupid accusations against Russia’ that Putin has dismissed as ‘madness and nonsense’.
In an address to his nation on Wednesday, Macron said that France was ‘legitimately worried’ about the United States shifting its position on the Ukraine conflict under US President Donald Trump.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets France’s President Emmanuel Macron (R) on the sidelines of the Special European Council to discuss continued support for Ukraine and European defence
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with workers and wards of The Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 6
A still image taken from a handout video made available by the Russian Defence Ministry press service shows a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile
The French leader said he would open a debate on extending France’s nuclear deterrent, following a phone conversation with Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Macron also reaffirmed that European military forces could be sent to Ukraine if a peace accord was signed to guarantee ‘respect’ of a deal.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said today that Macron was ‘detached from reality’ and making ‘contradictory statements’.
Lavrov stated today that Russia was unwavering in its opposition to this. ‘We see no room for compromise. This discussion is being held with an overtly hostile aim,’ he said.
Russia would consider such troops in the same way as it would view a NATO presence in Ukraine, Lavrov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Macron’s speech ‘extremely confrontational’, saying Russia felt that ‘France wants the war to continue.’
Macron is saying that ‘Russia has become practically an enemy of France’ but not that NATO’s military presence is encroaching on Russia’s borders, he said.
It came as Russia’s Defence Minister Andrey Belousov visited Russia’s nuclear weapons development laboratory today.
He told nuclear scientists the army was looking forward to getting its hands on ‘new developments’ in the near future, the defence ministry said in a statement.
An unarmed Trident II D5LE missile launches from the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) off the coast of Cape Canaveral
Meanwhile Putin met with relatives of soldiers killed on the frontline during his illegal invasion of Ukraine, which has been grinding on for more than three years with heavy casualties on both sides.
Asked by the mother of one fallen soldier if Russia would retreat, Putin said he did not intend to do that. Russia currently controls just under a fifth of Ukraine – or about 113,000 square km.
The Russian dictator said Moscow would seek a peace deal in Ukraine that safeguards its own long-term security and will not retreat from the gains it has made in the conflict.
‘We must choose for ourselves a peace option that will suit us and that will ensure peace for our country in the long term,’ he said.
The comments came as Mr Zelensky desperately tries to repair relations with Mr Trump after their extraordinary White House bust-up (pictured)
A view from the damaged site after the Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih
US President Donald Trump has upended Western policy on the Ukraine war, opening up bilateral talks on ending it with Moscow and freezing Kyiv out, at the same time as pausing military aid to Ukraine after clashing with President Zelensky last week.
Putin has repeatedly said he is open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but has ruled out any major territorial concessions and would insist that Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
In comments last summer setting out his terms for ending the war, Putin also said Ukraine must withdraw all its forces from the entire territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and partly controlled by Russia.
