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PARIS, France, Dec 21, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The French presidency on Sunday 
welcomed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to speak with 
Emmanuel Macron, after the French leader said Europe should reach out to 
Russia again over ending the war in Ukraine.

"It is welcome that the Kremlin has publicly agreed to this approach. We will 
decide in the coming days on the best way to proceed," the Elysee said.

The French presidency stressed, however, that any discussion with Moscow 
would be conducted "in full transparency" with Ukrainian President Volodymyr 
Zelensky and European allies, and that its goal remained to secure a "solid 
and lasting peace" for Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had "expressed readiness to engage 
in dialogue" with his French counterpart in an interview published Sunday by 
state news agency RIA Novosti.

Macron earlier in the week said he believed Europe should reach back out to 
Putin, rather than leaving the United States alone to take the lead in 
negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine that started with Russia's full-
scale invasion in 2022.

"The invasion of Ukraine and President Putin's obstinacy ended any 
possibility of dialogue" over the past three years, the Elysee said.

However, it added, "As soon as the prospect of a ceasefire and peace 
negotiations becomes clearer, it once again becomes useful to talk to Putin."

The United States is hosting further negotiations aimed at ending the 
conflict this weekend in Florida.

The talks are mediated by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald 
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, with Ukrainian and European envoys on one 
side, and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who arrived Saturday, on the other.

Zelensky had said Washington had mooted a trilateral format, which would mark 
Moscow and Kyiv's first face-to-face negotiations in half a year, but the 
Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the 
United States were on the cards.