French President Emmanuel Macron refused to describe Russian actions in Ukraine as "genocide".
This was reported by CNN.
In a TV interview with the public TV channel France 2, he made it clear that, unlike Joe Biden, he would not use the term "genocide" for the killing of Ukrainians by the Russian military. At the same time, Macron called Russians and Ukrainians "brothers."
"I would be careful with such terms today because these two peoples [Russians and Ukrainians] are brothers,” Macron said.
Nevertheless, he recognized the murders of civilians as war crimes by Russia.
“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.
Earlier, Macron spoke in favor of imposing new sanctions against Russia after the atrocities that Vladimir Putin's army committed in Bucha.