BRUSSELS, February 7. /TASS/. The European Union supports the initiative of resuming the exchange of opinions with Russia amid intensifying calls to pay more effort to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, and reports that French President Emmanuel Macron’s top diplomatic advisor Emmanuel Bonne has visited Moscow, Politico reported citing a European diplomat.

An unnamed European diplomat was quoted as saying that there is a shared understanding in Brussels that the "context is quite different from 2022" and that the recent diplomatic overtures were "well aligned" with other capitals, the portal wrote.

Macron previously announced his intention to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible. In December 2025, following the EU summit in Brussels, the French leader declared that the time had come for Europe to resume dialogue with Russia. In his view, the current format of negotiations on Ukraine, where American representatives discuss the terms of a settlement with Russia without the participation of Europeans, is "not optimal."

On February 4, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia and France were indeed interacting at a working level, but that these contacts lacked any significant content.