French President Emmanuel Macron said today that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cannot be expected to accept ceasefire terms while Kyiv, the country’s capital, is being bombed.

Russia pounded Kyiv with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least nine people, wounding more than 70, and damaging buildings in the largest attack on the Ukrainian capital since the beginning of the year.

Speaking from Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, where he is on a state visit, Macron said he hoped “President (Vladimir) Putin will finally stop lying” when he claims to want “peace” while continuing to bomb Ukraine.

“On Ukraine, there is only one answer we expect: does President Putin agree to an unconditional ceasefire?” the French president said, assessing that, faced with the difficulties of ending hostilities, “the anger of Americans should not be directed at just one person: President Putin.”

Referring to a U.S. proposal for a peace settlement in Ukraine, Macron said the status of the peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, “is not an issue now.”

US President Donald Trump, who has said that this territory has already been “lost” to Kyiv, describes a de facto situation. Macron said: “Does this mean we have to give everything (to Russia)? No.”The question of the status of the peninsula is not in any way now, and it is not up to us to do so, he added.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said at the same time that Ukraine’s territorial integrity is not a principle that can be negotiated.

A US proposal to end the war includes de jure recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula.