PARIS, December 20. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron does not rule out that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be invited to visit the country in 2024 once Ukraine peace talks are held, Macron said in a televised interview on the France 5 channel.
"Only if he [Putin] holds peace talks and changes the situation with [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky," Macron said in a long television interview broadcast on France 5 TV channel.
Journalists who spoke with the French President discussed major events coming up in 2024, including celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy. They listed the participants in the upcoming celebrations, noting that the Russian leader probably would not be among them.
The last time Russian President Vladimir Putin attended events marking the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War II was 10 years ago, in 2014. The event was also attended by then-Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and US President Barack Obama. Francois Hollande, who held the post of President of France at that time, together with the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, organized the first meeting of the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany on June 6 at the Chateau de Benouville (France) since the start of the Ukrainian crisis. In total, the leaders of the four countries met five times in this Normandy format. The last meeting took place in December 2019.