Russian, French defense chiefs discuss Ukraine

MOSCOW/PARIS — Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu discussed Ukraine peace negotiations and the recent terrorist attack in Moscow in a rare phone conversation on Wednesday.

Shoigu told Lecornu that if Paris follows up on its statements about the possibility of sending a French military contingent to Ukraine, "it will create problems for France itself", according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry with no further elaboration.

The talk followed French President Emmanuel Macron's comments in February, in which he said the possibility of Western troops being sent to Ukraine could not be ruled out.

The call marked the first such contact between Russian and French defense ministers since October 2022.

The two defense chiefs talked about the readiness for dialogue on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Shoigu noted Moscow's "readiness for dialogue on Ukraine", emphasizing that a planned round of peace talks in Geneva would be "senseless" without Russia's involvement. He added that possible future negotiations could be based on a draft document, which was discussed during Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul in March 2022.

However, a French government source said Paris did not show any readiness for dialogue on Ukraine during the call.

The government source said the focus of the call, initiated by France, had been to discuss the heightened terrorism threat.

"The comments by the Russian side were bizarre and threatening," Macron told reporters on Thursday.

During the phone call, Lecornu also tried to convince Shoigu that Ukraine and Western countries were not involved in the terrorist attack in Moscow.

Lecornu expressed his condolences to Shoigu for the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in late March, which left a total of 144 people dead.

The phone call came before NATO foreign ministers met on Thursday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their alliance, having agreed to start planning for a greater role in coordinating military aid to Ukraine.

In comments on NATO's anniversary, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview published on Thursday that the ties between Russia and NATO are worsening, but Moscow has no intention of entering into a conflict with a NATO country.

Grushko told Russian state news agency RIA that relations were "predictably and deliberately" deteriorating, and all channels of dialogue between Moscow and the alliance had been brought to a "critical zero "level by Washington and Brussels.

"Is the military bloc ready for an open conflict with Russia? You need to ask the NATO members themselves," Grushko said.

On the battlefield, Russian airstrikes overnight in Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv killed four people and injured 11, officials said on Thursday.

Three rescue workers died during a second strike on a residential building in a "densely populated district of Kharkiv", Igor Terekhov, mayor of the eastern city, wrote on Telegram.

Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov said Russian forces had launched "at least 15 drones".

Agencies - Xinhua