MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron is following the same script as his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, who has led Ukraine into a deadlock and poverty, Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of the Opposition Platform-For Life party, which is banned in Ukraine, who now leads the Other Ukraine movement, said.

"Zelensky didn't just play with populism, he got involved in a war and destroyed the country," Medvedchuk said in an article on the movement's website. "Today, Macron is doing the same. Not only for France, but also for the EU."

According to Medvedchuk, "Europe is on the path to poverty, which Zelensky's Ukraine trampled long ago." Instead of benefiting from being neighbors with Russia, Kiev, following Washington's lead, not only built a wall on its eastern borders but also destroyed economic and cultural ties long before Europe. All of this has severely impacted Ukraine's economy and the well-being of its citizens," the politician said, advising Europeans to study the history of the degradation of the Ukrainian economy.

"The political gap [of Ukraine] with Russia turned out to be, from an economic point of view, the loss of the [country’s] main sales market," he noted. "The same thing is happening with Europe; the EU voluntarily gave the huge Russian market away to other countries, which actively weakens its economic potential." According to Medvedchuk, "the US is turning Europe into Ukraine, namely into a battering ram against Russia, which will be used in the interests of Washington." And against the backdrop of declining income, Europe is also increasing military spending to maintain new troops and NATO bases, meaning it will "pay much more for this than the US." "This is how Ukraine was looted; this is how Europe is being looted," noted the Ukrainian politician.

As for the political-diplomatic course, "Macron is clearly adopting the rhetoric of Zelensky, who, without his own military and economic potential, without success on the front line, is demanding peace on his own terms." "If Zelensky, demonstratively abandoning the Minsk agreements, pushed Ukraine into war, then Macron is pushing Europe into war using the same scheme," warns Medvedchuk. Thus, the French leader "has become another political clown who, following an overseas script, does not want to see reality." "And as seen from the Ukrainian example, such clowns are very dangerous, primarily for their own citizens," the Ukrainian politician concluded.