Macron hits Putin for rejecting truce with Ukraine during Olympics

French President Emmanuel Macron chastised Russian President Vladimir Putin for rejecting an Olympics truce proposal with Ukraine and said Putin’s rejection shows the world that he is “not ready to make peace.”

“This is a big clarification moment because every week until now President Putin was claiming to be available for peace,” Macron said this week, in an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that aired Thursday.

But now that Putin has a specific offer for peace available to him, Macron said in the interview, he rejects it.

“So for everybody in the world, it’s clear he is the one who decided to launch his war, and he is not ready to make peace,” Macron said.

The Olympics will begin in France this summer on July 26. Macron has long pushed for a truce, which he has noted is part of a long tradition in the Olympics.

Macron said in the CNBC interview he thinks it’s important to use the Olympics as a moment to make progress toward peace and “to maximize the level of pressure on those who decided to launch a war,” referring to Putin.

Macron also said the Olympics could be a “very good opportunity” to build ties with China and work together toward peace.

“Look, a truce is not for me the endgame. Sustainable peace is the endgame,” he said. “But I think it’s very important … to use this window” during the Olympics.

Both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the truce proposal. Putin cited a recent decision from the International Olympic Committee to block Russia from officially competing. Russian athletes are permitted to attend, despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but they must compete under a neutral flag.