The French president Emmanuel Macron continues to deepen its support for Ukraine. This Friday, during a meeting that he held at the Elysée with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskythe president urged the European Union to open the accession negotiations to the bloc of the country at war “effectively, by the end of the month.”
“France will continue” to support “Ukraine in all forums,” especially “at the European level, to try to obtain the effective launch of the accession negotiations by the end of the month,” he said, adding that he also wishes an “irreversible rapprochement” between kyiv and NATO. “I will have the opportunity to once again underline our commitment to bring Ukraine closer to our Alliance,” he continued, referring to his presence at the organization’s summit in Washington, between July 9 and 11.
Both Ukraine and Moldova comply with the conditions established by the European Commission for the opening of negotiations, although this will only occur with the approval of the 27 member states, one of them the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, who could block it as a sign of opposition.
On the other hand, Macron addressed Defense issues with his counterpart and returned to the announcement on the eve of French Mirage 2000-5 fighter aircraft, Scalp model medium-range air-to-ground missiles and aviation bombs. Although he avoided providing the number of ships that will be sent to kyiv “for a matter of efficiency,” he mentioned that “we have analyzed the needs” and the entire strategy was drawn up based on that. In turn, he specified that “training of pilots and mechanics in France” will begin as soon as in the next few days.
Regarding the training of Ukrainian officers, the president He also did not rule out the possibility of sending his soldiers to the countryalthough this should occur in coordination with the international community.
Zelensky has repeatedly asked Western allies to carry out training on their soil for reasons of speed and effectiveness. So far, all countries have avoided this alternative and continued with their assistance from abroad. However, the Elysée Palace slipped in the last hours that its instructors could land on the front lines of the war to teach locals as part of an EU coalition.
“Several of our partners have given us their agreement, in the coming days we will outline it,” he said.
Likewise, he ruled out that this translates into an escalation of conflicts, as Russia warned in recent weeks when pointing out that French soldiers would be a “legitimate objective” of its troops. “Is training Ukrainian soldiers on their own soil an escalation? No, that is recognizing the sovereignty of Ukraine.”he declared.
Finally, France announced during the meeting the creation of a support fund to the essential infrastructures attacked by Russian attacks, which seek to weaken the people by depriving them of basic services such as electricity. The project will have a total sum of 200 million eurosof which 60 million will be destined exclusively to “the energy priority”.
At the same time, the French Development Agency (AFD) will finance “key projects, especially at the local level”, in the coming weeks.
Zelensky was grateful for Paris’ support in the face of Vladimir Putin’s siege. “Russian terror hits Ukraine. I thank France for its support of the Ukrainians. The fight for Europe continues. The future of our people is still up in the air (…) Europe must continue to be a space of peace, of freedom and not of violence and hatred spread by regimes like the Russian one,” he mentioned.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
