Ukraine Must Reclaim Crimea to Achieve Real Peace: Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said Crimea must once again be recognized as part of Ukraine for there to be “lasting peace” in the region.

Macron made the comment while discussing Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine during an interview with French television channels TF1 and France 2.

The French leader garnered international headlines last month after he said that he could not rule out Western soldiers eventually being sent into Ukraine. Macron backtracked somewhat on the position a few days later, but has since said that the topic of Western boots on the ground shouldn’t be off-limits.

Russia was quick to condemn Macron’s original statement regarding Western soldiers becoming directly involved in the war, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying such a move would result in the “inevitability” of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.

“We are doing everything we can to help Ukraine defeat Russia, because I will say it very simply: There can be no lasting peace if there is no sovereignty, if there is no return to Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, including Crimea,” Macron said during the TV interview.

His comments regarding Crimea will likely be met with scorn from the Kremlin, given the importance Russian President Vladimir Putin places on the peninsula.

In 2014, Putin invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Since his current invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the peninsula has been a major talking point. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said on multiple occasions that one of his objectives in the conflict is to reclaim Crimea and four other regions Putin annexed in September 2022.

Putin has maintained that Crimea belongs to Russia, and Kremlin officials have stated numerous times that returning the territory to Ukraine will not be included in any possible peace negotiations.

Elsewhere in the television interview, Macron said that if Russia wins the war, “Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero.”

“Do you think that the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Estonians, the Romanians and the Bulgarians could remain at peace for a second? Let alone Moldova, which admittedly is not a member of the European Union today, but which would be under threat at any second,” the French president said.

Macron continued by emphasizing that France views Russia as an enemy due to his country’s support of Kyiv.

“Today, Russia is definitely an enemy. The Kremlin regime is an enemy,” Macron said. “As I have always said, we are not waging a war against Russia and the Russian people, and we are supporting Ukraine.”

Newsweek reached out to the Kremlin via email on Thursday night for comment.

Crimea not only holds symbolic value, but it is also important strategically, as the peninsula serves as Russia’s central logistics hub for its military forces in southern Ukraine.

The past year has seen an increase in the frequency of Ukrainian strikes in Crimea. One of the more high-profile assaults on Putin’s navy in the region came on March 5 when a squadron of Ukrainian Magura V5 sea drones destroyed the $65 million Sergey Kotov patrol ship.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, recently said strikes on Russian positions in Crimea are a preamble for a “serious operation” that will be launched on the peninsula.