‘Nobody negotiated with Hitler,’ Polish PM says, berating France’s Macron over Putin talks

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland on Monday berated French President Emmanuel Macron for negotiating with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying “nobody negotiated with Hitler”, amid an international outcry over killings of civilians during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine on Sunday accused Russian forces of carrying out a “massacre” in Bucha and Western leaders reacted with outrage to images of bodies strewn across the streets of the town. Russia denies Ukraine’s accusation.

Poland has on many occasions called for harsher sanctions on Russia and supply more arms to Ukraine. It has also called for an international tribunal to investigate killings of civilians in Ukraine.

“Mr. President Macron, how many times have you negotiated with Putin, what have you achieved? Have you stopped any of the actions that have taken place?” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference on Monday.

“One should not negotiate with criminals, one should fight them…Nobody negotiated with Hitler. Would you negotiate with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot?” he added.

Macron’s office said in a response that it is important for President Putin to understand the demands of Western countries and the cost for Russia of disregarding them.

“From the onset, the president has used all available means to make Putin stop the war: massive sanctions, support to Ukraine, demands made directly to President Putin during their calls,” a French presidential official said.

Macron has spared no effort to mediate between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, travelling to Moscow and Kyiv in early February and speaking to Putin 16 times since the start of the year in telephone conversations the Elysée says have been confrontational but offered an opportunity to keep a communication channel open and gauge Putin’s state of mind.

Elysée officials have in the past offered scathing readouts of the calls, saying Putin has appeared “paranoid” in these calls, has lied to the French leader and that Macron told him he made a serious mistake in invading Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russia sent its forces into Ukraine on what Putin called a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” the country. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw and Michel Rose in Paris; Writing by Anna Koper and Michel Rose; Editing by Mark Heinrich)