Published: February 20, 2022 11:50 PM IST 
New Delhi: Amid escalating tension between Moscow and Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday agreed to work for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported quoting Macron’s office. According to the report, in a phone conversation lasting 105 minutes, Macron and Putin also agreed on “the need to favour a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and to do everything to achieve one”, the Elysee said, adding that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov would meet “in the coming days”.
During the phone call, the Russian President Putin told his French counterpart that he intends to withdraw Russian troops from Belarus as soon as ongoing military exercises there are over, said Macron’s office, according to AFP.
Following the call between both leaders, the French presidency said that this claim “will have to be verified”, adding it appeared to contradict a statement by the Belarusian government that the Russian military would “continue inspections” beyond Sunday’s previously announced end of the exercises, leaving Moscow with a large force near the northern Ukraine border.
Putin and Macron said they would work “intensely” to allow the Trilateral Contact Group, which includes Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, to meet “in the next few hours with the aim of getting all interested parties to commit to a ceasefire at the contact line” in eastern Ukraine where government troops and pro-Russian separatists are facing each other.
“Intense diplomatic work will take place in the coming days,” Macron’s office said, with several consultations to take place in Paris.
Macron and Putin also agreed that talks between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany should resume to implement the so-called Minsk protocol which in 2014 had already called for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
Both also agreed to work towards “a high-level meeting with the aim of defining a new peace and security order in Europe”, Macron’s office said.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is also willing to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin “in any format at any place and time” to prevent a war, top US diplomat said on Sunday as he asserted that everything leading up to the actual invasion of Ukraine appears to be taking place.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments came amid heightened tensions between Russia and the US, fuelled by fears that Moscow plans to invade Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly denied that it has plans to attack Ukraine.
“As we have described it, everything leading up to the actual invasion appears to be taking place, all of these false flag operations, all of these provocations to create justifications. All of that is already in train,” Blinken told CNN in an interview.
Aggressive military action has already begun in and around Ukraine, which is facing increased shelling from Russian-backed separatist rebels and a force of what Blinken and Western capitals say is more than 150,000 Russian troops on its borders.
“We believe President Putin has made the decision, but until the tanks are actually rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward, he said.
“President Biden is prepared to engage President Putin at any time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war. I reached out to my Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister (Sergey) Lavrov, to urge that we meet next week in Europe. The plan is still to do that, unless Russia invades in the meantime, Blinken said in response to a question.
President Biden said on Friday that based on the latest American intelligence, he was “convinced” that Putin has decided to invade Ukraine in coming days.
Putin and Biden last spoke by telephone on February 12, according to the White House.
Blinken said that was just one of several signs that Moscow is gearing up for an invasion, with Putin “following the script almost to the letter.”
“It tells us that the playbook that we laid out, I laid out at the UN Security Council last week, about Russia trying to create a series of provocations as justifications for aggression against Ukraine, is going forward,” Blinken said.
Biden was hosting a rare weekend meeting of his National Security Council on Sunday to address the Ukraine crisis.
Meanwhile US Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking to reporters Sunday after addressing the Munich Security Conference, said Western allies were prepared to hammer Russia with massive sanctions should they invade Ukraine.
“We still sincerely hope that there is a diplomatic path out of this moment,” Harris said, although she acknowledged that such a window is “absolutely narrowing.”
“We are talking about the real possibility of war in Europe,” she said.
Russia extended military drills near Ukraine’s northern borders Sunday amid increased fears that two days of sustained shelling along the contact line between soldiers and Russa-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine could spark an invasion. Ukraine’s president appealed for a cease-fire.
The exercises were originally set to end Sunday and brought a sizable contingent of Russian forces to Belarus. The presence of the Russian troops raised concern that they could be used to sweep down on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, a city of about 3 million people less than a three-hour drive away.
Western leaders warned that Russia was poised to attack its neighbor, which is surrounded on three sides by about 150,000 Russian soldiers, warplanes and equipment. Russia held nuclear drills Saturday as well as the conventional exercises in Belarus, and has ongoing naval drills off the coast in the Black Sea.
The United States and many European countries have alleged for months that Russia is trying to create pretexts to invade. They have threatened massive, immediate sanctions if it does.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Saturday on Russian President Vladimir Putin to choose a place where the two leaders could meet to try to resolve the crisis and on Sunday appealed for a cease-fire on Twitter. Russia has denied plans to invade, but the Kremlin had not responded to Zelenskyy’s offer to meet by Sunday, and it was Belarus — not Russia — that announced the extension of the drills.
NATO has estimated there are 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus.
(With inputs from PTI and Associated Press)
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