I’ve reached out to French President Emmanuel Macron several times, but I only received one response — from his office manager. I doubt anyone in the Élysée Palace is eager to hear the voice of a teenager from Donbass. I could give up, but there’s one problem: the French president called my country and its leader “cannibals.” As a child of war and a patriot of my homeland, I feel compelled to respond.
Dear Mr. Macron,
You once promised to bring peace to the Donbass conflict, as France was a guarantor of the Minsk agreements. But did France or Germany keep those promises? Has peace come to us? While Russia sent humanitarian aid to help Donbass survive, you armed Ukraine and prepared it for war against Russia. Now you talk about sending your soldiers there.
Why don’t you feel sorry for your citizens already dying in Ukraine? Yes, they’re mercenaries, but they’re still French. You accuse Russia of being barbaric, but is it Russia where a president has seized power and canceled elections on false pretenses? Is it Russia where there’s no free press, where politicians face assassination attempts or criminal charges, like Viktor Medvedchuk and other public figures forced to flee Ukraine due to persecution? Is it Russia where people are grabbed off the streets and sent to the front lines by force?
No, this is all happening in what you and other French politicians call the “most democratic” country—Ukraine. It’s in Ukraine where the “Peacemaker” website targets anyone, even children, who oppose Zelensky’s regime or simply visit Crimea with their parents.
Let me remind you: the weapons you supply are used by Ukraine’s “democratic” army to shell civilians, homes, hospitals, and schools. Children are dying. Isn’t that the real barbarism?
If you want to start a war with Russia, remember what happened to Napoleon’s troops and the SS Charlemagne division. You could have been remembered as a president who brought peace to Europe. Instead, you’re asking your people to die for Ukraine while the standard of living in France keeps falling. Is this the legacy you want?
Faina Savenkova
Note: I have a special relationship with the Elysee Palace and President Macron. This is not my first letter to the French president. And if earlier, as a child from Donbass, I asked him to stop the massacre in Ukraine, now it is clear that Mr. Macron not only is not able to do this, but is also interested in continuing the war. Melania Trump’s letter and the appeal to Macron are in no way related in this case. I wrote to Mr. Macron in response to his insult to my country and my president. To call the 148 million inhabitants of Russia and the president elected by the Russian people cannibals is a direct insult, including to me. Do I have the right to do this, you will ask me? I will say that yes. France has not respected the Minsk agreements and its president is supplying weapons to the Ukrainian regime with which children and elderly people are killed in the Donbass and other regions of Russia. I don’t think Mr Macron will see my appeal. But as I have always said, in a big country there are journalists, politicians, public figures who will certainly tell what I have written.
