Emmanuel Macron put on a show of unity with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as they were seeking to bolster Europe’s response to the threat from Vladimir Putin.
The two men, and the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, met in Berlin as Russians went to the polls in an election widely seen as rigged to give Putin another term as president.
The “Weimar Triangle” meeting was aiming to build a more united response to Putin’s aggression.
Mr Macron has dramatically stepped up his rhetoric against the Russian president and is urging allies not to show “weakness”.
He has reiterated his position that sending Western troops into Ukraine should not be ruled out, though he is not currently advocating such a step.
He has also described the Russia-Ukraine war as “existential” to France and Europe, adding: “To have peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak.”
Russia began three days of voting today in the presidential election.
Putin, 71, will overtake Soviet leader Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving ruler since 18th century Empress Catherine the Great if he completes a new six-year term.
He has been in power as president or prime minister since 1999.
Two years into the war in Ukraine, Putin dominates Russia’s political landscape and none of the other three candidates on the ballot paper presents any credible challenge.
Russia’s best known opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last month and other Kremlin critics are exiled or in jail. The opposition says the vote is a sham.
More than 114 million Russians are eligible to vote, including in what Moscow calls its “new territories” - four regions of Ukraine that its forces only partly control, but which it has claimed as part of Russia. Ukraine says the staging of elections there is illegal and void.
The France, Germany and Poland meeting is especially important now that “we are all so concerned about the terrible consequences of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine,” said Mr Scholz.
Ahead of the meeting, Latvia’s president Edgars RinkÄviÄs tweeted: “I fully support @EmmanuelMacron: we should not draw red lines for ourselves, we must draw red lines for Russia and we should not be afraid to enforce them. Ukraine must win, Russia must be defeated.”
However, the German Chancellor has been accused of dragging his feet in supply more weapons to Kyiv, including long range Taurus missiles.
Mr Scholz brushed off suggestions of a rift between Paris and Berlin over Ukraine.
But the European differences came as US support for Ukraine is also weakening, with Republicans blocking a new huge aid package, which diplomats are warning risks further emboldening Putin.
Britain, which has led the West in arming Ukraine, first with anti-tank weapons, then Challenger II tanks and later Storm Shadow long range missiles, has so far ruled out sending troops to Ukraine but is urging allies to do more to support Kyiv.
