Moscow views comments by President Emmanuel Macron about extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European partners as a “threat”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
“Of course it is a threat against Russia. If he sees us as a threat... and says that it is necessary to use a nuclear weapon, is preparing to use a nuclear weapon against Russia, of course it is a threat,” Lavrov said at a press conference.
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Macron in an address to the nation Wednesday called Russia a “threat to France and Europe” and said the French were “legitimately worried” about the United States shifting its position on the Ukraine conflict under US President Donald Trump.
He said he would open a debate on extending France’s nuclear deterrent to other European nations, following a phone conversation with Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz on extending that umbrella of protection.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier Thursday said Macron was “detached from reality” and making “contradictory statements”.
She mockingly compared him to a character in a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, Ole Lukoje, who holds umbrellas over sleeping children.
The French president also reaffirmed that European military forces could be sent to Ukraine if a peace accord was signed to guarantee “respect” of a deal.
Lavrov, though, said Russia was unwavering in its opposition to the deployment of European forces in Ukraine as peacekeepers, suggesting they would not be impartial.
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“We see no room for compromise. This discussion is being held with an overtly hostile aim,” he added.
Russia will consider such troops in the same way as it would view NATO presence in Ukraine, Lavrov said.
He compared Macron to Hitler and Napoleon, saying that unlike those leaders, Macron did not openly say he wanted to conquer Russia, but he “evidently wants the same thing”.
Macron is making “stupid accusations against Russia” that President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly dismissed as “madness and nonsense”, he added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Macron’s speech “extremely confrontational”, saying Russia felt that “France wants the war to continue.”
Macron is saying that “Russia has become practically an enemy of France” but not that NATO’s military presence is encroaching Russia’s borders, he said.
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