Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron about the “liberation” of Mariupol and complained that Western powers were ignoring Ukrainian attacks on Russian-controlled territory during a phone call on Tuesday, transmits MIA.
The two-hour conversation was the first time the two men had spoken since the end of March. The Élysée Palace gave few details about the call, but the Kremlin said that part of the conversation focused on the besieged city of Mariupol and the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steelworks.
Putin also told Macron that the West could have avoided civilian deaths if it had desisted from sending weapons to Ukraine, according to the Kremlin account, which did not touch on allegations of war crimes committed by Russians against Ukrainian civilians.
