France's foreign minister said he hopes for an "immediate" and "unconditional" ceasefire through Thursday's Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Türkiye.
"(The) best we can hope for in these technical discussions is indeed a ceasefire, an immediate, unconditional ceasefire that would allow for proper peace negotiation," Jean-Noel Barrot said Thursday, speaking before the start of day two of a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Antalya, Türkiye.
On reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to attend the peace talks in Istanbul, Barrot said there was an "empty chair" in front of Ukraine "waiting for" Putin.
"Russia is willing to avoid the massive sanctions on oil, on the financial sector that the US and that Europeans are preparing in the instance where Russia would keep refusing to ceasefire," he stressed.
Barrot further warned that the upcoming talks should avoid "three traps" that led previous discussions to fail: continuing talks amid active hostilities, forcing Ukraine to demilitarize without security guarantees, and lifting sanctions at the very beginning of negotiations.
