His statement follows his joint call with US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“President Putin must prove tomorrow that he truly wants peace and accept the unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposed by President Trump and supported by both Ukraine and Europe,” Macron added.
On May 16, for the first time in over three years, direct talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul. While they fell short of a breakthrough, both sides agreed to a prisoner exchange involving 1,000 captives.
However, Russia presented a list of demands, including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from key eastern territories—conditions Kyiv considers unacceptable.
Potential Putin–Trump meeting
On May 16, US President Donald Trump announced that he hopes to meet with Putin “as soon as it can be arranged,” reiterating his belief that no real progress toward peace will be made without a direct meeting with the Russian leader.
"Nothing will happen until we meet," he claimed then.
"He wasn’t going to come [to Turkeye] if I didn’t."
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally traveled to Turkeye and invited Putin to a face-to-face meeting, the Kremlin instead sent a lower-level delegation led by aide Vladimir Medinsky, along with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, and Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff Igor Kostyukov.
On May 17, US State Secretary Marco Rubio confirmed that Trump is pushing to arrange an in-person meeting with Putin as soon as possible.
Trump is reportedly planning phone calls to both Putin and Zelenskyy on May 19 in an attempt to finalize a ceasefire agreement.