French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Thursday said France’s decision to suspend the delivery of two Mistral warships to Russia had not changed as the 1.2 billion-euro defence contract appeared to steadily sink.

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“The issue has not evolved since the last announcements by the president,” Fabius told FRANCE 24 in referring to François Hollande’s decision in November to keep two Mistral-class helicopter carriers moored at the Saint Nazaire shipyard in western France indefinitely.

“We are at a stage where the decision [to fulfil the contract with Russia] is suspended,” said Fabius at a press conference in Paris.

France has balked at handing over the first of two high-tech warships ordered by the Russian Navy in response to Moscow’s role in the Ukrainian crisis.

Fabius’s announcement came as Russian President Vladimir Putin downplayed the diplomatic deadlock over the French-built vessels.

Fielding questions from Russians in a televised call-in show, Putin declared on Thursday that the absence of the Mistrals would not compromise his country’s military capabilities, and that he would not impose penalties on France for backtracking on the deal.

The Russian president said he only wanted advance payments for the ships to be returned. “I assume the current French leadership and the French generally are good people and will return our money,” he said.

Putin’s apparent indifference to the unresolved Mistral contract was in sharp contrast to other recent announcements by Moscow.

Earlier this week, Anatoly Isaikin, head of Russia's state arms trader Rosoboronexport, set a deadline for the delivery of the Mistrals before bringing the case to international courts.

“For now, the conditions and time tables of the deal allow us, as well as the French, to seek a compromise without involving the courts or resorting to strong consequences… We have around two months left,” Isaikin told the Kommersant daily in an interview published on Monday.

France and other European powers have sought to punish Russia over its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, slapping sanctions on Moscow, while negotiating a ceasefire with Ukrainian and Russian representatives.

Fabius noted that France was pursuing a twin-pronged approach of “firmness and dialogue” in relation to Russia and the ongoing conflict along Russia’s border.

“Firmness because a good number of Russian actions in Ukraine are unacceptable, and dialogue because we are not going to declare war on Russia,” Fabius said.

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