Russian President Putin Welcomed by French President Macron Prior to Peace Talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin was welcomed to the Elysée Palace by French President Emmanuel Macron, Monday, December 9, prior to a peace summit with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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READ MORE: Five years after Kremlin-backed separatists seized power in Ukraine's Donbas region, leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Paris in a bid to revive efforts for a peaceful resolution to a conflict that's left more than 13,000 civilians and combatants dead and 30,000 wounded.

Hopes of a possible breakthrough had been boosted by recent withdrawals of rival troops from some key frontline positions and a prisoner exchange between the Russians and Ukrainians. France's Emmanuel Macron, who is hosting the Paris talks, the first direct negotiations in three years over the Donbas, is keen to break the impasse and so, too, is Ukraine's new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

But there's mounting anxiety in Ukraine that the rookie president, a former television comedian, will be be out-maneuvered in the Paris talks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has since the conflict broke out only agreed to stuttering talks and at times his position appeared to be stronger than Kyiv's.
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