Putin is not irrational or war-mongering for the sake of it, but rather “European interests are not aligned to the US’” -

an ambivalent interpretation of litotes.

According to Sarkozy, Putin is not irrational or war-mongering for the sake of it, but rather “European interests are not aligned to the US’”, and EU leaders must act accordingly.

First and foremost, for him, this would mean “Ukraine must not join the EU. “

“Ukraine is a bridge between the West and the East [and] must remain so”, such that the country’s EU candidate status is at best “disingenuous”, comparing the process to Turkey’s negotiations to join the EU, which have reached a years-long stalemate, he said.

Instead, Ukraine ought to remain “neutral”, so as not to feed into Putin’s “anti-West paranoia”.