In the wake of Russia's President Putin agreeing to re-start the 2022 peace talks regarding the SMO in Ukraine, Sky News reports French President Macron saying:

Responding to Mr Putin's proposal, Mr Macron said the Russian leader was "looking for a way forward, but he still has a desire to buy time".

Mr Putin's proposed negotiations are "a first step, but they are not sufficient," he told French broadcaster BFM.

"An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations, by definition."

Strange. Macron appears to have forgotten the Vietnam War where the agreement to end the Vietnam War in 1973 was preceded by years of negotiations that started in 1968.

But maybe Vietnam slipped his mind, especially after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954.

Also the Paris Peace Accords negotiations mainly took place in Paris (France) so Macron's memory lapse is truly worrying, given he is a lot younger than former US President Biden.

Admittedly what the Paris agreement did was not impose an 'unconditional ceasefire' on North Vietnam but provide the excuse the USA needed to exit their unpopular war, while leaving the killing to continue in South Vietnam.

To give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he is referring to the 'unconditional surrender' imposed on Nazi Germany after the Red Army broke the back of the Wehrmacht, occupied Berlin and forced Hitler to commit suicide, but if he is then he is a little confused in his logic.

And prior to that, there was the ceasefire agreed to end the Korean War in 1953, for which negotiations began in 1950.

So, by definition, ceasefires are often preceded by negotiations and protracted ones at that.

And while we are at, 'unconditional' ceasefire is a nonsense term anyway.

Every ceasefire has at least one condition: that the combatants refrain from attacking each other. And most ceasefires include other 'conditions' like prisoner swaps and the establishment of aid corridors. So the use of this term is another pointless distraction (see update below).

Macron's statement easily qualifies for the Addison de Witt lie of the month award:

That was a stupid lie, easy to expose, not worthy of you.

Update 23-05-25:

According to the Wall Street Journal:

[https://trump.news-pravda.com/trump/2025/05/22/141453.html]

US President Donald Trump has spoken out against an "unconditional" ceasefire in Ukraine. He talked about this with the heads of the European Union (EU) countries.

"Some of the Europeans who participated in the telephone conversation on Monday insisted that any negotiations in the Vatican should result in an unconditional cease-fire. But Trump objected again, saying he didn't like the term "unconditional." He said he had never used the term," The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.