KIEV, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- High-level diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions around Ukraine have been stepped up in recent weeks, with Western leaders engaging in rounds of meetings over the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
French President Emmanuel Macron this week is on a diplomatic tour of national capitals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday to discuss the Ukraine crisis and security issue in Europe, before heading to the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev on Tuesday.
At a joint press conference with Putin following their hours-long talks in the Kremlin, Macron said that he believes there is still an opportunity to find a peaceful path for Europe, where new mechanisms are needed to ensure security and existing pacts are preserved.
Putin at the briefing said Russia's core concerns on security were ignored by the United States and NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), while the military alliance attempts to lecture Russia on where and how to place its armed forces.
Putin reiterated Russia's opposition to NATO's eastward expansion, adding that Kiev refuses to comply with the 2015 Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian issue and is even attempting to dismantle the deals.
At a news conference with Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced his hope that the next meeting of leaders of the Normandy Four, which includes Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia, would take place "in the near future."
In a meeting with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to "bring an end to" Nord Stream 2, a key Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany, if Russia invades Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed the crisis with Putin in a telephone conversation on Feb. 2.
According to a statement published on the British government's website, the leaders agreed that an escalation of the situation was "in no one's interest."
The prime minister stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy, and the need to include Ukraine in talks, the statement said.
Johnson met with Zelensky on Feb. 1 in Kiev, where the two leaders discussed several security issues, including Russia's military buildup along the border with Ukraine.
Some Ukrainian experts pinned their hopes on the high-level talks to defuse the tensions around Ukraine.
"The key goals of the parties are somewhat different, but there is a gradual convergence of the agendas," Igar Tyshkevich, an expert with the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, told Xinhua.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
