France’s Macron warns against ‘escalation’ after Biden brands Putin a ‘butcher’

By AFP 27 March 2022, 2:10 pm

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France's President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he talks to the press on the second day of a European Union summit at the EU Headquarters in Brussels, on March 25, 2022. (Ludovic Marin/AFP)

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron warns against verbal “escalation” with Moscow, after US President Joe Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a “butcher” over his invasion of Ukraine.

Macron tells broadcaster France 3 that he saw his task as “achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of (Russian) troops by diplomatic means. If we want to do that, we can’t escalate either in words or actions.”