Macron says West will ‘increase pressure on Russia’ in next 10 days

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published Monday that Western allies would “increase pressure on Russia” over the next 10 days and he had told Washington to harden its stance against Moscow.

Macron’s comments to the French weekly Paris Match came after US President Donald Trump toughened his stance against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in the wake of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the funeral of Pope Francis.

Relations have been tense between Zelenskyy and Trump after Washington opened direct talks with the Kremlin to end the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“In the next eight to ten days, we will increase the pressure on Russia,” he said.

Macron, who was also at the Vatican on Saturday for the pope’s funeral, added: “The next 15 days will be crucial in trying to implement a ceasefire” in Ukraine.

The president added that he believed he had “convinced the Americans of the possibility of an escalation of threats, and potentially sanctions” against Moscow.

Macron said he spoke to Trump last week “to encourage him to adopt a firmer line” against Putin.

And at the pope’s funeral “I again told him (Trump): ‘We need to be much tougher with the Russians’,” Macron told Paris Match.

“The goal is for the Americans to be able to go to Kyiv fairly quickly, for us to establish the conditions for a ceasefire, and for us to work in depth on measures to support this ceasefire to preserve it on the Ukrainian side,” said Macron.

He did not say what kind of American delegation could visit Kyiv.

“We must be ready, together with the Americans, to toughen our stance towards Russia to secure this ceasefire,” the French president said.

Russia has so far not responded to US offers for a long-term truce, instead unilaterally announcing brief truces, including one from May 8-10.

“I believe that we have succeeded, thanks to this meeting at the Vatican, in putting pressure back on Russia. That was the desired goal, because it was unfair for pressure to be exerted solely on Ukraine,” Macron said.