Ukraine-Russia war high on the agenda at Munich Security Council; France’s Macron says world must not accept Ukraine defeated. What we know on day 1,452
German chancellor Friedrich Merz has told the Munich Security Council Russia’s war against Ukraine will “only end when Russia is at least economically, potentially militarily, exhausted”. The German chancellor described the security gathering as a seismograph for the state of US-European relations. Merz said the Ukraine war “had forced Europe to return from a vacation from world history”.
With Russia’s war against Ukraine entering its fifth year, the conflict was high on the agenda at the security conference. French president Emmanuel Macron said any peace settlement must protect Ukraine, preserve European security and disincentivize Russia from attempting another invasion, while not providing the rest of the world with a “calamitous example to follow”. He said it was a “huge strategic mistake” to urge Ukraine to accept it was defeated. “One day Russians will have to reckon with the enormity of the crime committed in their name, with the futility of the pretexts and the devastating, longer term effects on their country, but until that time comes, we will not lower the guard.”
