Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, has said that there will never be peace in Ukraine as long as the goal of the fighting there is to "crush Russia."
Some people say that the goal of this war is to destroy Russia, the French leader said. And that's where you're wrong, according to me. If you do that, there will never be a peace agreement."
On Friday, Macron talked to a CNN affiliate, BFMTV, as he was leaving Ukraine on a train. He also said that Zelenksy's goal is not to crush Russia.
"President Zelensky defends his land. And we want to help him do that," Macron said, adding that "commentators or certain leaders shouldn't go further than what the Ukrainians want."
"So France's job has been to put an end to this question," he said. "But sometimes we've won the war but lost the peace."
Macron said that France still backs Ukraine and pushed back against claims that his earlier comments about not wanting to "humiliate Russia" had hurt his relationship with Ukraine's president.