Newsman: The US President Joe Biden said he would be willing to speak to Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader truly wants to end the war. Biden was speaking at a joint news conference with Macron on Thursday. French President Emmanuel Macron, during this state visit said he will speak again to Putin after his trip to Washington and has warned against cutting off the Russian leader. This is the first time since the Ukraine invasion President Biden has said that he is open to talk to the Russian President Putin.
At a joint news conference, Biden said, “I’m prepared to speak with Mr. Putin if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he’s looking for a way to end the war. He hasn’t done that yet.”
Biden said he had no immediate plans to contact Putin but left open the possibility.
“I’m prepared to speak with Mr. Putin if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he’s looking for a way to end the war. He hasn’t done that yet,” Biden said.
“If that’s the case, in consultation with my French and my NATO friends, I’ll be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he has in mind. He hasn’t done that yet.”
“There’s one way for this war to end, the rational way. Putin to pull out of Ukraine, number one. But it appears he’s not. Bombing nurseries, hospitals, children’s homes. It’s sick what he’s doing,” he said.
“The idea that Putin is ever going to defeat Ukraine is beyond comprehension,” Biden said.
“He’s miscalculated every single thing he initially calculated.”
Biden and Macron both vowed long-term support for Ukraine and pledged to hold Moscow accountable for war crimes.
The France leader Macron said he planned to talk to Putin in part over the security of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine.
“I will continue to talk to President Putin,” Macron said, calling for efforts “to prevent escalation and to achieve concrete results.”
“We will never urge the Ukrainians to make a compromise that will not be acceptable to them,” Macron said.
