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Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, fumed on Sunday over French President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion the West should think of “guarantees” to give Vladimir Putin after the war. The French leader said Europe should discuss “how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table”.
He added: “One of the essential points we must address — as President Putin has always said — is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors, and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia.”
In response, Mr Danilov said: “Instead of Nuremberg — to sign an agreement with [Russia] and shake hands?
“Ukrainian blood on Putin’s hands will not bother business as usual?”
He added that a “denuclearised and demilitarised” Russia would be “the best guarantee of peace for Europe and the world.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that instead of thinking of “guarantees” to give to Russia, the world should get security guarantees “from the barbaric intentions of post-Putin Russia”.
This is not the first time Mr Macron infuriates Kyiv over comments on Vladimir Putin.
In June, the French leader called on the West not to “humiliate” the Russian President.
He said: “We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means.”
He added that he was “convinced that it is France’s role to be a mediating power”.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in response: “Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it.
“Because it is Russia that humiliates itself.
“We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place.
“This will bring peace and save lives.”
READ MORE: Elite Russian helicopter explodes mid-air after devastating strike
Many other factors, including COVID-19 prevention measures in China that have crimped its manufacturing, are also having an impact on demand for crude and thus prices. They are far down from a peak earlier during the war.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is in charge of energy issues, warned in televised comments on Sunday that Russia won’t sell its oil to countries that would try to use the cap.
“We will only sell oil and oil products to the countries that will work with us on market terms, even if we have to reduce output to some extent,” Novak said in televised remarks hours before the price cap came into effect.
The Ukrainian government demanded over the weekend a lower price cap, to $30 per barrel, insisting that at the $60 level Russia would still reap annual oil revenues of $100 billion — money that can be used to finance its war machine.
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