Did Vladimir Putin “play” Donald Trump at the Alaska summit?" If there's no meeting with Zelensky by Monday, then..."

Emmanuel Macron has warned of new sanctions if Vladimir Putin does not meet Volodymyr Zelensky by Monday, as he has pledged to Donald Trump. Speaking from Toulon, the French president accused his Russian counterpart of “playing games” with the American president, and warned that this “cannot go unanswered”.

If the Russian head of state does not meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky by Monday as requested by Donald Trump, “it will mean that President Putin has played President Trump,” said Emmanuel Macron on Friday.

If this bilateral meeting “to which President Putin has committed himself to President Trump” does not take place by Monday, “I believe that once again, it will mean that President Putin will have played President Trump” and “this cannot go unanswered”, he argued during a press conference alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

“Both of us will be talking to President Trump” this weekend and “if we were to find next week that once again, after months of broken promises, this was not the case, we would make a very clear case for primary and secondary sanctions” against Russia, he added.