Macron meets Zelensky in Ukraine, as Russia retains the world guessing.

KYIV, Ukraine — President Emmanuel Macron of France mentioned on Tuesday that the Ukraine disaster might take months to resolve, however that his shuttle diplomacy this week between Russia and Ukraine had raised hopes of stabilizing the state of affairs.

Mr. Macron met President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday, a day after holding a five-hour assembly with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Moscow.

The Kremlin mentioned on Tuesday that there have been “seeds of motive” in proposals Mr. Macron had put ahead in the course of the assembly with Mr. Putin. However Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, rejected studies that the 2 leaders had reached any type of settlement on de-escalating the disaster, which Western nations say has been incited by Russia’s buildup round Ukraine of roughly 130,000 troops, lots of which look like within the remaining phases of readiness for an invasion.

Mr. Putin was ready to maintain negotiating over Russia’s safety calls for in Japanese Europe, Mr. Peskov mentioned, however added: “Up to now, we don’t see and really feel the readiness of our Western counterparts to take our considerations into consideration.” The USA and NATO have flatly rejected Russian calls for to stop the bloc’s growth into components of Japanese Europe that Moscow considers a part of its sphere of affect.

On Monday evening, the Russian chief saved the West guessing at his intentions — refusing to rule out the potential of invading Ukraine and warning of the potential of a full-scale warfare between Russia and the West, whereas leaving the door open to additional diplomacy. He mentioned he would communicate with Mr. Macron once more by telephone after the French president met with Mr. Zelensky.

However some analysts fear that Mr. Putin’s engagement in diplomacy is merely shopping for time for Russia’s navy to make remaining preparations for an invasion.

On Tuesday, the Russian Protection Ministry mentioned in an announcement that six giant touchdown craft from the Russian Navy’s Baltic and Northern Fleets, able to carrying hundreds of troops, had been dispatched to the waters off Ukraine within the Black Sea, elevating considerations that they may open a brand new vector of assault.

The assertion mentioned that the ships had been scheduled to participate in deliberate navy workouts. Army analysts, nonetheless, say that combining the ships with forces already deployed to the Black Sea area would supply a major amphibious assault power able to threatening a big space of the shoreline of Ukraine, which has solely a restricted coastal protection system.

Russia’s bulletins of large-scale navy drills within the area have prompted fears that they might be the pretext for an assault towards Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded in 2014, annexing Crimea. Specifically, the deployment of troops to Belarus, hundreds of miles from their everlasting bases, has been considered as a risk towards Kyiv, which is a few 140 miles from the border with Belarus.

Talking to reporters on the airplane to Kyiv, Mr. Macron mentioned that Mr. Putin had confirmed that he would withdraw troops from Belarus after the workouts, that are scheduled to conclude on Feb. 20, in line with the Russian Protection Ministry. Mr. Peskov mentioned that Mr. Putin didn’t give a date for his or her withdrawal, however added: “Nobody has ever mentioned that Russian troops would keep in Belarus. This was by no means on the agenda.”