Macron says he wants ‘European approach’ in dialogue with Putin

Macron advocates for a unified European approach in dialogue with Putin following renewed discussions post-Ukraine invasion.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to include European partners in a resumption of dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin nearly four years after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

He spoke after dispatching a top adviser to Moscow last week, in the first such meeting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“What did I gain? Confirmation that Russia does not want peace right now,” he said in an interview with several European newspapers including Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung.

“But above all, we have rebuilt those channels of discussion at a technical level,” he said in the interview released on Tuesday (February 10, 2026).

“My wish is to share this with my European partners and to have a well-organised European approach,” he added.

Dialogue with Mr. Putin should take place without “too many interlocutors, with a given mandate”, he said.