French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted he is not participating in inflammatory rhetoric the US is doling out about the war in Ukraine.
He stated this in an interview with public radio France 2 when asked whether he, like US President Joe Biden would use the term “genocide” for the killing of Ukrainians by the Russian military.
Biden said Tuesday the atrocities being uncovered in Ukraine qualify as genocide, saying “it’s become clearer and clearer that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian.”
“I would be careful with such terms today because these two peoples [Russians and Ukrainians] are brothers,” Macron said.
“I want to continue to try, as much as I can, to stop this war and rebuild peace. I am not sure that an escalation of rhetoric serves that cause,” he added.
“What we can say for sure is that the situation is unacceptable and that these are war crimes. We are living through war crimes that are unprecedented on our soil — our European soil.”
The French President also mentioned France’s cooperation with Ukraine to investigate the alleged war crimes.
“Russia has unilaterally started an extremely brutal war, it has now been established that the Russian army has committed war crimes and we must now find those who are responsible,” Macron said.