Macron warns don’t expect ‘miracles’ in talks with Putin over Ukraine

Emmanuel Macron has warned against expecting "miracles" in his talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow aimed at fending off a Russian attack on Ukraine.

The French president had been upbeat about the chances of finding a compromise over European security that would persuade Putin not to order an invasion but, on arrival in Moscow on Monday, Macron sought to play down expectations.

"We can prevent some things in the short term," he said in Moscow, but added: "I don't think there are short-term victories.

"I don't believe in spontaneous miracles. There is lots of tensions, nervousness," Macron added.

Macron's meeting with Putin was part of a frenetic day of diplomacy under the shadow of a possible new war in Europe. Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was meeting Joe Biden at the White House and the country's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, was in Kyiv, assuring the Ukrainian government of support. Meanwhile, the US and the EU held talks in Washington on how to keep energy supplies flowing to Europe if Russia turned off the flow of natural gas.

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, led the European delegation to Washington to discuss emergency energy supplies to the continent if the pipeline running through Ukraine was severed.

"We are living by understanding the most dangerous moment for the security in Europe after the end of the cold war," Borrell said, giving a new estimate of the Russian military buildup.

"Nobody masses 140,000 heavily armed soldiers on the border of a country, at the same time [as questioning] the independence to this country in a way that certainly represents a strong threat," Borrell said, adding that the Russian troops were not there "to have tea".

He said that European gas prices were already six to 10 times higher than a year ago, adding urgency to the need to diversify energy sources.

"When Russia halted gas supplies over a dispute with Ukraine in 2009, people died from the cold. And when energy supplies fail, economies falter," the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said.

"We're determined to prevent that from happening and to mitigate the impact on energy supplies and prices should Russia choose to cut natural gas supplies to Europe more than it already has."

The US and EU are trying to secure short-notice deliveries of liquified natural gas (LNG) and agreements to pool reserves in the face of limits on the supply for the east, as well as LNG supply and infrastructure constraints that make it very hard to make up the shortfall.

"It's clear that from the general nature of the comments from secretary Blinken and high commissioner Burrell that they're still scrambling in terms of their response to this situation," said Duncan Wood, vice-president for strategy and new initiatives and the Wilson Center thinktank.

In their White House meeting, Biden and Scholz were expected to discuss the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which has been built but not yet opened.

While the US has been adamant the pipeline would not open if Russia carries out an attack, the German government has been less clear, with Scholz appealing for "strategic ambiguity".

Washington, meanwhile, has been opaque on whether it would seek to stop Nord Stream 2 from functioning even if Putin withdrew his troops.

"If we are in the happy situation where there is not a Russian invasion and we are able to move along the diplomatic path, we will continue to engage in conversations with Germany and our European partners about this issue more broadly," a senior US administration official said before the summit meeting.