Zelensky meets Macron in Paris to discuss tougher Russia sanctions as US eases oil restrictions amid Middle East war, complicating Ukraine peace efforts

PARIS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Paris on Friday for talks with President Emmanuel Macron on ramping up pressure on Russia to end its four-year invasion.

The visit comes as Kyiv’s allies worry that a US temporary lifting of Russian oil sanctions will aid Russian President Vladimir Putin, already boosted by rising energy prices due the Middle East war.

“The president is already in Paris,” Zelensky’s spokesman Sergiy Nykyforov told reporters, including AFP journalists, adding the two leaders were expected to meet early afternoon local time and hold a press conference on Zelensky’s 12th visit to France since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The talks between Macron and Zelensky were to focus on increasing sanctions pressure on Russia by targeting its “shadow fleet” of tankers used to transport oil in breach of sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine, the French presidency has said.

But the United States said on Thursday it was allowing the sale of Russian oil that is at sea, in a bid to cool international oil prices after US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 sparked regional war.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the short-term measure was aimed to “increase the global reach of existing supply”.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that “easing sanctions now, for whatever reason, is wrong. We believe that is the wrong course of action”.

“After all, we want to ensure that Russia does not exploit the war in Iran to weaken Ukraine,” he said.

During a call with US President Donald Trump earlier this week “six members of the G7 were very clear in their opinion that this would not send the right signal,” he added.

Macron had said after a G7 video call that easing sanctions on Moscow was “in no way” justified.

US-brokered talks between Kyiv and Moscow to end the Ukraine war have also been derailed by the Middle East conflict.

The Kremlin said earlier this week that the planned meeting in Paris would obstruct the peace process and that the “very idea of trying to put pressure on Russia is absurd”.

Zelensky on Thursday travelled to Romania, where he agreed to launch joint drone production with Bucharest, and offered to develop anti-drone defence systems with Kyiv’s European allies.

Blocked EU loan

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has sparked the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II, forcing the displacement of millions and leaving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead on both sides.

Zelensky’s visit comes as European Union member Hungary blocked a vital 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) EU loan to Ukraine as well as a fresh round of sanctions on Russia.

Hungary and Slovakia have accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying reopening the Druzhba pipeline, which pumps Russian oil to the two landlocked states and Ukraine says was damaged by Russian strikes in January.

Brussels said Thursday it had proposed a mission to inspect the blocked oil pipeline, and was waiting for Kyiv to respond.

Zelensky said last week it could take four to six weeks to make the pipeline operational again.

Macron announced earlier Friday that his nation’s first soldier was killed during the Middle East war in an attack in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

 The Sun Malaysia