French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone Thursday afternoon with Russian President Vladimir Putin and told him he was making a "big mistake" by invading Ukraine. A senior French official said Macron had warned Putin that Russia would pay a heavy price if it continued its aggression. "Your conduct will place a heavy price on your country, Russia will be isolated, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time," Macron said. At the end of the conversation between the two, Macron noted that not only did he understand from Putin that he did not intend to withdraw from Ukraine, but that he intended to forcibly conquer the entire country. After the conversation, Macron added that it did not appear that Putin intended to withdraw soon and that Putin planned to occupy the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, a European intelligence source says that Russia's intelligence agency has formulated plans for public executions in Ukraine after the occupation of cities, Bloomberg reported. It was further reported that the agency was planning to control the masses in a violent way and to suppress protest organizers in order to break Ukrainian morale. At the same time, talks between Russia and Ukraine on the Belarusian border resumed. At present there are no reports of progress in the meeting which began this afternoon.
