Summary
- Macron
warned Putin could “outmaneuver” Trump again. - Putin’s
failure to commit to the Zelenskiy meeting was criticized. - White
House called Macron’s question about Trump “absurd.” - Trump
was praised for brokering seven peace deals recently.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that if U.S.
President Donald Trump does not commit to discussions with Ukraine’s Volodymyr
Zelensky by Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be deceiving him.
“If that doesn’t happen by Monday, the deadline set by
President Trump, it means President Putin has once again played President
Trump,”
Macron said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz.
A reporter outside the White House on Friday asked Trump’s
deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, “if that was true.”
“Such an absurd question,”
Miller responded.
“President Trump has achieved seven peace deals in seven months. No
president in history has done more to advance the cause of peace. He’s been
nominated by multiple world leaders for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
“Obviously, he’s working steadfastly to end the killing
in Ukraine,”
Miller said.
According to Trump’s complaint
from last month, the president of Russia
“talks nice and then he bombs
everybody.”
However, he has also criticized Ukraine for its attacks, and
the Trump administration did not publicly denounce a significant Russian
missile and drone attack on Ukraine that killed at least 23 people overnight
from Wednesday to Thursday.
Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries, White
House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
Trump has threatened “consequences” that are not
yet clear if Putin and Zelensky do not meet. Zelensky brought up Trump’s
earlier statement on Friday that he would wait one to two weeks for Putin to
agree to a bilateral meeting before taking further measures against Moscow.
“Two weeks will be on Monday. And we will remind everybody,”
the Ukrainian president said.
Zelensky expressed frustration with what he called Russia’s
lack of constructive engagement in the process while it continues to launch
devastating aerial attacks on civilian areas, and the planned meetings between
U.S., Ukrainian, and European leaders in New York next week seemed to be
intended to give the peace movement more impetus.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, met with Andriy
Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, in New York on Friday to
discuss getting ready for future meetings.
Despite meeting with Trump in Alaska this month, Yermak said
he had informed Witkoff about Russia’s recent strikes on Ukraine and bemoaned
Putin’s lack of interest in participating in peace initiatives.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, in
a social media post Friday:
“The key priority is to push forward real
diplomacy and ensure the implementation of all the agreements reached at the
Washington summit. We are coordinating our efforts.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday:
“I will remind you of President Putin’s position. He does not rule out the
possibility of holding such a meeting, but he believes that any meeting, any
high-level meeting, must be well prepared so that it can be used to analyze the
groundwork that should first be carried out at the expert level.”
According to the United States, Putin is scheduled to attend
a summit in China starting on Sunday that will also include North Korea and
Iran, nations that have supported Russia’s war effort.
World leaders are anticipated to attend the UN General
Assembly starting on September 9, where the topic of Russia’s invasion is
probably going to be covered.
How did Macron link Trump’s deadline to Putin meeting
Zelensky in his remarks?
French President Emmanuel Macron linked former President
Donald Trump’s deadline for peace talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr
Zelensky by stating that if Putin does not commit by that deadline to meet
Zelensky, “it means President Putin has once again outmaneuvered President
Trump.” Macron made this remark during a joint press briefing with German
Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Macron emphasized that the deadline set by Trump is Monday,
and failure by Putin to agree to discussions with Zelensky by then would
indicate that Putin has deceived Trump. This comment came against the backdrop
of Trump warning of “repercussions” if the leaders of Russia and
Ukraine do not convene for peace talks.
In essence, Macron framed the deadline as a test for Putin’s
sincerity in peace efforts, implying that failure to meet it means playing
Trump politically.
