War between Ukraine and Russia File At the end of his state visit to the United States, the President returned to the conflict during an interview on TF1. He insisted that the border issue and Zelenskyy’s legitimacy to retake Crimea “depend on the Ukrainians.” He promised Kyiv new supplies of arms.
Emmanuel Macron chose a powerful image to answer a question about Ukraine’s legitimacy to retake Crimea, which Russia illegally occupied and annexed in 2014 before marking the end of the ongoing conflict since February 24 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in considered. “Do you think when we French had to witness the conquest of Alsace and Lorraine, we wished that a leader from the rest of the world would tell us in the middle of the war: you have to do this or that?” he said.
“One thing depends on the Ukrainians, that is the issue of borders,” the President stressed. “What is at stake in Ukraine and what we defend are the principles of the United Nations Charter: territorial integrity and national sovereignty. And that’s why I believe in the freedom of peoples to decide for themselves. It is up to the Ukrainian people to decide for themselves and under what conditions, how, when… Not up to us.”
The same vision
Emmanuel Macron, after his visit to the United States and his talks with his American counterpart Joe Biden, insisted on aligning the positions of France and the United States on the conflict in Ukraine. “I think I can say that the United States and France share the same vision of things, to continue helping Ukraine resist, to help Ukrainians at all costs to resist the bombing of their civilian infrastructure. […] and do everything possible to put pressure on Russia to get back to the negotiating table,” he said. Before you remind that on December 13 in Paris a conference will be held, which will be co-chaired by him and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“One thing we have to prepare, and we also discussed that with President Biden, is the security architecture in which we want to live tomorrow,” added Emmanuel Macron, who announced a few days ago that he would soon meet Vladimir Putin. The French President confirmed he had been briefed on Friday’s phone call between the Russian President and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, during which Vladimir Putin deemed his military’s bombardments of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure “inevitable and necessary”.
“Among other things, we have ensured from the beginning of the conflict that there is no escalation of civilian nuclear energy. Ukraine is a nuclear-powered country and that is why I will speak to President Putin again after I have met the Director-General of the[Agence internationale de l’énergie atomique]on the subject of civilian nuclear power in particular, very concrete and precise issues are needed, ”said the French President, without giving a precise date.
“We will have to help Ukraine resist in the coming weeks and help the Ukrainians to persevere, continue to help them militarily, avoid escalation and therefore intervene very precisely to protect the power plants and the dialogue for the day where everyone comes back around the table,” he added, before confirming that France will soon be supplying more arms to Ukraine, particularly by “getting our industrialists to produce faster and stronger.”