PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said that he was not seeing for now any diplomatic breakthroughs in talks with Moscow that would allow the war in Ukraine to end.

Asked by listeners at a campaign event close to Paris about the war, Macron said: “We will continue to talk to Russia, even though discussions with President Putin are difficult.

“I don’t think that in the coming days and weeks, there will be a real negotiated solution”, said Macron, adding that France and the West should not interfere in bilateral talks about a potential ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow.

He earlier at the event said he was planning to hold a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping jointly with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday to discuss the Ukraine crisis.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Benoit Van Overstraeten and Rosalba O’Brien)

French President and candidate for his re-election in the 2022 French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron holds a meeting with local residents in Poissy as part of his first campaign event, France, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier