Emmanuel Macron facing French election nightmare as Russia failure gives rivals easy win

Emmanuel Macron has been left with his tail between his legs over rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

The French President said he had spoken with Vladimir Putin in an attempt to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine after the Russian President recognised the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states.

But President Putin denied giving any assurance that no further Russian action would take place in Ukraine, shattering any hopes of a summit between the leader in Moscow and US President Joe Biden.

With the French elections set to take place in April, Macron has already faced criticism from his opponents with some accusing him of “grandstanding”.

Marine Le Pen, who is set to challenge Macron for his premiership said: “I wondered whether he was really acting as president in this whole process, or whether he was looking to win the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Elsewhere, Jean-Luc Melenchon said it was “useless” to hope Macron would do better.

Yesterday, Downing Street confirmed Boris Johnson had spoken to Macron about the “chilling developments in Ukraine”.

In a call on Tuesday afternoon, a No 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister updated President Macron on the new sanctions he unveiled against Russia today, and the leaders agreed they needed to continue to work in lockstep to target Russian individuals and entities bankrolling President (Vladimir) Putin’s aggressive approach.

“The pair reiterated that together, the UK and France were working to reinforce Europe’s borders and defend European security against increasing Russian aggression.”