Ukraine’s Zelensky arrives in Paris for talks with Macron on increasing sanctions pressure on Russia amid stalled peace efforts

PARIS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Paris on Friday, his spokesman said, for talks with President Emmanuel Macron on ramping up pressure on Russia.

The visit comes as talks brokered between Kyiv and Moscow by the United States to end the four-year invasion have been derailed by the US-Israeli war with Iran.

“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.

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

The talks between Macron and Zelensky will 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 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the French presidency had said.

Zelensky’s visit comes one day after he travelled to Romania where he deepened defence ties and agreed to launch joint drone production with Bucharest.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 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.

 The Sun Malaysia