Polish PM berates French President Macron for talks with Putin amid killings in Ukraine after Russian invasion

Image courtesy: Reuters

Warsaw: Poland on Monday berated French President Emmanuel Macron for negotiating with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying "nobody negotiated with Hitler", amid an international outcry over the killings of civilians during Russia`s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine on Sunday accused Russian forces of carrying out a "massacre" in Bucha and Western leaders reacted with outrage to images of bodies strewn across the streets of the town. Russia denies Ukraine`s accusation.

Poland has on many occasions called for harsher sanctions on Russia and supply more arms to Ukraine. It has also called for an international tribunal to investigate killings of civilians in Ukraine. "Mr. President Macron, how many times have you negotiated with Putin, what have you achieved? Have you stopped any of the actions that have taken place?" Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference on Monday.

"One should not negotiate with criminals, one should fight them...Nobody negotiated with Hitler. Would you negotiate with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot?" he added.

Macron`s office said in a response that it is important for President Putin to understand the demands of Western countries and the cost for Russia of disregarding them.

"From the onset, the president has used all available means to make Putin stop the war: massive sanctions, support to Ukraine, demands made directly to President Putin during their calls," a French presidential official said.

Macron has spared no effort to mediate between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, travelling to Moscow and Kyiv in early February and speaking to Putin 16 times since the start of the year in telephone conversations the Elysée says have been confrontational but offered an opportunity to keep a communication channel open and gauge Putin’s state of mind.

Elysée officials have in the past offered scathing readouts of the calls, saying Putin has appeared "paranoid" in these calls, has lied to the French leader and that Macron told him he made a serious mistake in invading Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russia sent its forces into Ukraine on what Putin called a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" the country. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

Ukraine-Russia war: What you need to know right now

Global outrage spread over civilian killings near Kyiv including evidence of bound bodies shot at close range and a mass grave found in areas retaken from Russian troops.

WAR CRIMES INVESTIGATION?

US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal on Monday and said he would call for a war crimes trial.

Ukraine said 50 of some 300 bodies found in Bucha northwest of Kyiv city were victims of extra-judicial killings by Russian troops. Reuters could not verify the report.

Satellite images showed a 45-foot (14-m) -long trench dug into the grounds of a church where a mass grave was found.

Ukraine called for an International Criminal Court investigation that France and Britain said they would support, and rights group Human Rights Watch said it had documented "apparent war crimes".

The Kremlin said it categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians in the town and that the graves and corpses had been staged by Ukraine to tarnish Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia`s mission to the United Nations would hold a news conference in New York with "the most detailed material to show the true nature of incidents in Bucha".

FIGHTING

Officials in Ukraine`s northern regions said Russian troops there had fully withdrawn or significantly reduced in number, leaving mines and damaged military vehicles behind.

Russia has repositioned about two-thirds of its forces from around Kyiv, with many of them consolidating in Belarus, a senior U.S. defence official said.

Ukraine`s defence ministry said Russia was preparing to launch a fresh assault in the east to try to take the city of Kharkiv and encircle the heavily fortified eastern frontline.

Explosions were heard in the cities of Kherson and Odesa, in the south and sounded across Ukraine`s east.

Heavy fighting has continued in Mariupol as Russian forces attempt to take the southeastern port city, British military intelligence said.

ECONOMY

Ukraine demanded crippling new sanctions from major Western powers over what it called the Bucha "massacre".

Russia maintained gas flows through key pipeline routes into Europe on Monday, despite uncertainty over payment terms and as the EU said it would "significantly tighten" further sanctions against Moscow

French President Emmanuel Macron said new sanctions were needed, including on oil and coal, and that there were "very clear clues pointing to war crimes" by Russian forces in Bucha.

PEACE TALKS

Russia said it had requested a U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday because of what Moscow called Kyiv`s attempts to disrupt peace talks and escalate violence with a "provocation" in Bucha.

Britain`s mission to the U.N. said that request had been denied and that the Council would discuss Ukraine on Tuesday.

QUOTES

"This guy is brutal. And what`s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone`s seen it," Biden said.* "What is more opposite to music? The silence of ruined cities and killed people," Zelenskiy said in a Grammy Awards video.

"I recognised him by his sneakers, his trousers. He looked mutilated, his body was cold," said Tetyana Volodymyrivna, a resident of Bucha, describing her husband.