Over the past week, each and every moment â with each and every bomb and missile that has been dropped; each and every tweet, speech, and announcement from Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy; each school and civilian area that gets leveled to the ground by Russian forces; each and every unhinged, untruthful word from Donald Trump and the GOP â it has felt as though the state of the world, at this point, could not possibly get any worse.
But when you’re dealing with an unhinged, maniacal, genuine dictator like Vladimir Putin, it absolutely can, and it often will.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned the world today, after a 90-minute phone call with Russian dictatorial President Vladimir Putin, that he believes “the worst is to come” with regard to the Russian invasion and attack against the country of Ukraine and its people, with an aide to the French world leader stating that Putin appears to be fully intent on seizing “the whole” of the country of Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, a senior aide to French President Emmanuel Macron revealed, “The expectation of the president is that the worst is to come, given what President Putin told him.”
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
The aide went on to add that “There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation.” He noted that Russian President Putin “wanted to seize control of the whole of Ukraine. He will, in his own words, carry out his operation to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine to the end.”
“You can understand the extent to which these words are shocking and unacceptable and the president told him that it was lies,” the anonymous aide explained.
It was noted that Macron heavily urged the Russian dictator to avoid attacks on civilian areas and civilian casualties in the war, as well as pushing Putin to allow for humanitarian access.
The Macron aide claimed that “President Putin replied that he was in favor but without making any commitments,” going on to add that Putin blatantly denied the fact that the Russian military has been directly targeting civilian areas and infrastructures in Ukraine.
The senior aide revealed that Macron will continue to push for increased sanctions against Russia to hike up the cost of the ongoing war, but denied any personal, open tensions between the two world leaders.
“President Putin has a way of talking that is very neutral and very clinical. He sometimes shows signs of impatience, but fundamentally there were no open signs of tensions during the exchanges,” the aide stated.
At this point, I feel that we should all be prepared for the very worst.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
