Russian president Vladimir Putin told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday that Moscow planned to achieve its aims in Ukraine either through diplomacy or military means, the Élysée said, reports RFI.
Meanwhile, French defence minister Florence Parly is in Romania speaking with NATO troops.
Russia would reach its objectives in Ukraine "either through negotiation or through war", Putin told Macron according to a French presidential official, adding the Russian president also pledged "it was not his intention" to attack Ukrainian nuclear sites.
Macron found Putin "very determined to achieve his objectives", including on "what the Russian president calls the 'de-Nazification' and the 'neutralisation' of Ukraine", added the official, who asked not to be named.
Putin also demanded recognition of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea -- annexed by Russia in 2014 -- as part of Russian territory as well as recognition as independent of two Ukrainian eastern breakaway regions already recognised by Russia.
These demands are "unacceptable for the Ukrainians", said the official.