A pro-Ukraine rally in front of the US Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Photo / AFP
A pro-Ukraine rally in front of the US Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Photo / AFP
Russia views Emmanuel Macron’s comments on extending France’s nuclear deterrent as a ‘threat’, says Sergei Lavrov.
Lavrov reaffirmed Russia’s opposition to European forces in Ukraine, suggesting they wouldn’t be impartial.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Macron’s speech ‘extremely confrontational’ and accused France of wanting the war to continue.
Russia viewed comments by President Emmanuel Macron about extending France’s nuclear deterrent to other European countries as a “threat”, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
Lavrov also reaffirmed his country’s opposition to European forces being deployed in Ukraine if an accord were made to halt the conflict.
Macron on Wednesday called Russia a “threat to France and Europe” and said France was “legitimately worried” about the United States shifting its position on the Ukraine conflict under President Donald Trump.
The French leader said he would open a debate on extending his country’s nuclear deterrent, following a phone conversation with Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
“Of course it is a threat against Russia. If he sees us as a threat ... and says that it is necessary to use a nuclear weapon, is preparing to use a nuclear weapon against Russia, of course it is a threat,” Lavrov said.
In an apparent jab at France, Russian President Vladimir Putin said later: “There are still people who want to return to the times of Napoleon, forgetting how it ended.”
A boy with a picture of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a pro-Ukraine rally in front of the US Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Photo / AFP
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Russian Empire in 1812 in a disastrous six-month military campaign that ended in Russian victory.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Macron was “detached from reality” and making “contradictory statements”.
Macron also reaffirmed European military forces could be sent to Ukraine if a peace accord was signed to guarantee “respect” of a deal.
Lavrov said Russia was unwavering in its opposition to the deployment of European forces in Ukraine as peacekeepers, suggesting they would not be impartial.
“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.
He compared Macron to Hitler and Napoleon, saying that unlike those leaders, Macron did not openly say he wanted to conquer Russia, but he “evidently wants the same thing”.
Macron was making “stupid accusations against Russia” that Putin had dismissed as “madness and nonsense”, Lavrov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Macron’s speech “extremely confrontational”, saying Russia felt “France wants the war to continue”.
Macron was saying “Russia has become practically an enemy of France”, but not that Nato’s military presence was encroaching on Russia’s borders, he said.
Defence Minister Andrey Belousov visited Russia’s nuclear weapons development laboratory on Thursday.
During the visit he told nuclear scientists the Army was looking forward to getting its hands on “new developments” in the near future, the defence ministry said.
