PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss the war in Ukraine during a broadcast address slated for 1900 GMT on Wednesday, Macron's office said in a statement.

Macron had said in a February 24 televised address to the nation that he would regularly update the French about the Ukraine crisis.

Macron has led European efforts to avert war in Ukraine, flying to Moscow last month to meet Putin and spending hours on the phone with him and other world leaders over the past weeks to mediate.

Macron has yet to make his decision to run for re-election in April's presidential election but is widely expected to do so and to win in the vote.

The deadline for candidates to declare they are running is on March 4.

A week after launching its invasion of Ukraine, Russia said its forces took control of the first sizable city on Wednesday, seizing Kherson in the south, as fighting raged around the country and Western nations tightened an economic noose around Russia.