European Union\u2019s two biggest economies have agreed to push for measures targeting companies from third countries that support Russia\u2019s war.<\/p>\n
Published On 29 Aug 202529 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for secondary sanctions aimed at disrupting Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine<\/a> after holding the 25th Franco-German Council of Ministers, with US President Donald Trump\u2019s diplomatic push<\/a> yet to bring the three-and-a-half-year war to an end.<\/p>\n The leaders of Europe\u2019s two biggest economies on Friday agreed to accelerate measures targeting Russia\u2019s war machine, including \u201ccompanies from third countries that support Russia\u2019s war\u201d, according to a joint statement after the meeting in the southern French port city of Toulon.<\/p>\n Both countries also agreed to send additional air defence hardware to Ukraine, a day after the deadliest Russian attack on Kyiv in months, and to open a strategic dialogue about nuclear deterrence. Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment blocks in Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 23 people, including four children and wounding approximately 50 others.<\/p>\n The moves came as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict sparked by Russia\u2019s February 2022 full-scale invasion of its neighbour appear to have lost steam after Trump moved to restore dialogue with Moscow at the start of his second presidency.<\/p>\n Macron expressed hope that a long-awaited meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy would eventually take place, as Putin committed to do in conversations with Trump earlier this month.<\/p>\n But he added that if the Russian leader did not meet a Monday deadline to agree to the talks, \u201cIt will show again President Putin has played President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Merz added that it looked like Putin was \u201cunwilling\u201d to hold such a meeting and said that the war looked like it would last \u201cmany more months\u201d.<\/p>\n He promised that \u201cwe will not abandon Ukraine\u201d but said it looked like Putin was showing \u201cno readiness\u201d to meet Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be frank, that does not surprise me as this is part of this Russian president\u2019s strategy,\u201d Merz said.<\/p>\n \u2018Ogre at our gates\u2019<\/p>\n France\u2019s Macron showed no regret for describing Putin in an interview last week as an \u201cogre at our gates\u201d, in comments that angered Moscow.<\/p>\n \u201cWe say there is an ogre at the gates of Europe \u2026 this is very much what the Georgians [after a 2008 invasion] and Ukrainians and many other nations feel very deeply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a man who has decided to go down an authoritarian path and impose imperialism to change international frontiers.\u201d<\/p>\n Macron also warned that Putin had a habit of saying one thing at international talks and then acting differently.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gap between President Putin\u2019s positions at international summits and the reality on the ground shows how insincere he is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Russia said on Friday that Macron had spoken in a manner unbecoming of a head of state. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow that Macron was constantly making strange statements that sometimes crossed the line of decency and turned into \u201clow-grade insults\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Union\u2019s two biggest economies have agreed to push for measures targeting companies from third countries that support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,36,1824,12,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-383560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","15":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115114417029789249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}