Macron mediating between Russia, Ukraine 'in vain' - Zelensky
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Ukraine stresses that talks with Russia would not be fruitful since Kiev is not ready to make concessions while calling on Rome to ban Russian citizens from entering Italy.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a news conference on May 8, 2022 (AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron has been mediating between Moscow and Kiev "in vain," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, stressing that his country's authorities would never make certain concessions to Russia.
"We shouldn't look for a way out for Russia. Macron is doing it in vain… Macron's mediation between us was aimed at a certain result, but it fell short of it," Zelensky told Italian broadcaster Rai 1.
The Ukrainian president claimed that Ukraine had been offered to compromise its sovereignty to "save Putin's face". However, he said, Kiev "would never recognize Russia's ownership of Crimea" or the independence of the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stressed that he believed it was necessary to maintain talks with Russia on Ukraine, including at the request of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Macron and Putin last spoke over the phone on May 3. It lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes, according to French media.
Zelensky also called on Italy to stop issuing visas to Russian tourists in a "show of cultural resistance, so that they know they are not welcome," marking a Ukrainian push for russophobia, which has been on the rise since the start of the war in the country.
Italian association of travel agencies and tourism chief Alberto Corti described Zelensky's proposal to close the borders to Russians as an act of "political pressure".
"On the one hand, this proposal is understandable, but from the point of view of tourism, it is somewhat absurd since our stance has always been the opposite — that [tourism] is a point of positive attraction," Corti told Russian news agency Sputnik.
The war in Ukraine led to an avalanche of sanctions against Russia, banning the country's athletes from participating in international sports events. Even paraplegic Russian athletes were not safe from the inundating sanctions, dubbed by many as "hysterical".
The Ukrainian calls for sanctions on Russia have been met in the West with sanctions on Russian banks, businessmen, politicians, and lawmakers, in addition to the closure of airspace to Russian aircraft. The sanctions have gone as far as banning Fyodor Dostoevsky at an Italian university and banning Russian cats from participating in international events.
