Macron made the remarks in an interview with France 2
on June 18.
The French leader said Trump’s early view of the war was
what drove his push to reach a peace deal as quickly as possible.
“Remember, January-February 2025… He thought Ukraine was
going to lose. Everything went wrong in the Oval Office during the meeting with
Zelenskyy, and then… the summit between Trump and Putin raised hopes for a deal
under which Ukraine was being asked to hand over territories that Russia had
not even captured yet,” Macron said.
Macron said delegations later traveled to Washington and
explained that such a deal was impossible. After that, he said, Trump changed
his view and understood that earlier assessments of Ukraine’s inevitable defeat
were wrong.
“We have come a very long way since then. And that path is
first and foremost a victory for Ukrainians, their capabilities and their
persuasiveness. President Trump saw that everything he had been told — that [Ukrainians]
would fall, that they would not survive the winter — turned out to be untrue.
He saw that he was facing courageous, resourceful people he respects,” Macron
said.
Macron also said Trump realized that Russia does not keep
its promises and that its peace appeals effectively amount to a demand for
Ukraine’s capitulation.
He said the G7 summit produced the first “real breakthrough”
in Trump’s relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since
Trump’s election.
On June 17, Macron said on the sidelines of the G7 summit
that Trump had called for a tougher position toward Russia so Ukraine could
regain occupied territories. Macron said the summit’s final declaration
reaffirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity and stated that Ukraine itself
should determine its approach to territorial issues.
Trump also said at the time that Ukraine was “holding up
quite well” in the war against Russia, despite Moscow’s major advantage in
military resources.