(ANSA) - PARIS, APRIL 14 - The French president, Emmanuel Macron, reiterated today - regarding the controversy over his refusal to use the word "genocide" to define Russian operations in Ukraine - that "verbal escalation" will not "help" Ukrainians and could push Westerners to intervene.
Macron - speaking to France Bleu - said he spoke in the morning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who yesterday said he was "very hurt" by his French counterpart's refusal to report a "genocide" in his country, unlike by US President Joe Biden.
"The word genocide makes sense" and "must be a qualification established by lawyers, not politicians," Macron said during an election visit to the port city of LeHavre in northern France.
According to him, "states that talk about genocide, according to international conventions, should intervene. Is this what the people want?
"Everyone must maintain discernment - Macron continued - this does not mean helping Ukraine, but entering verbal escalation without drawing all the consequences. I maintain the same line of action: do everything to stop this war, be on the side of the Ukrainians,
(HANDLE).