France warns of 'collective guilt' if people in Ukraine's Mariupol not helped

"This is why there needs to be at least one moment when the civilian population can breathe," he said, adding that this was what the French President Emmanuel Macron was working to secure.

The French foreign minister said on Sunday there would be "collective guilt" if nothing was done to help civilians in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces.

"Mariupol is a striking example of a military siege, and military sieges are horrible wars because civil populations are massacred, annihilated. The suffering is terrible," Jean-Yves Le Drian told the Doha Forum international conference. "This is why there needs to be at least one moment when the civilian population can breathe," he said, adding that this was what the French President Emmanuel Macron was working to secure. Macron said on Friday he was seeking to hold more talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in coming days about the situation in Ukraine and the initiative to help people leave Mariupol.