PARIS (AP) – France on Sunday pledged additional military aid to Ukraine, including light tanks, armored vehicles, training of soldiers and other aid, following surprise talks between Ukraine and the French in Paris while Ukrainians prepare for a counter-offensive against the Russians Armed forces prepare presidents.
Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Frenchman Emmanuel Macron met for about three hours at the French President’s Elysee Palace – a meeting kept secret until shortly before the Ukrainian leader’s arrival in Paris on a French government plane from Germany and his European trip with several stopovers.
With Ukraine looking to go on the offensive in hopes of retaking Russian-held territories, military aid was high on the agenda. Macron’s office said France would deliver dozens of light tanks and armored vehicles “in the coming weeks,” without giving specific numbers. Other air defense systems were also promised, but again no details were released.
More Ukrainians are also being prepared for combat, with France looking to train about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers in France and nearly 4,000 more in Poland this year as part of a broader European effort, Macron’s office said.
In a statement, France described its support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity as “unwavering” and pledged that its political, economic, humanitarian and military assistance would continue “as long as necessary”.
In a tweet marking his arrival, Zelenskyy said: “With each visit, Ukraine’s defense and attack capabilities are expanding. Relations with Europe are strengthening and the pressure on Russia is increasing.”
France has supplied Ukraine with a range of weapons, including air defense systems, light tanks, howitzers and other weapons, as well as equipment and fuel.
France sent a plane to pick up Zelenskyy in Germany, where he met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier Sunday and discussed his country’s planned counter-offensive. Zelenskyy said his goal was the liberation of Russian-held territories within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, not an attack on Russian territory.
The Washington Post cited previously unreleased documents from a plethora of US intelligence leaks that suggest Zelenskyy has been contemplating seizing territory in Russia that could potentially serve as a bargaining chip for peace talks to end the war Moscow started in February 2022 at odds with Western governments, which have insisted that the weapons they provide cannot be used to attack targets in Russia.
Asked about the report, Zelenskyy said: “We are not attacking Russian territory, we are liberating our own legitimate territory.”
“We have neither the time nor the strength (to attack Russia),” he said, according to an official interpreter. “And we don’t have any weapons left to do it with either.”
“We are preparing a counterattack on the illegally occupied territories on the basis of our constitutionally established legitimate borders, which are internationally recognized,” Zelenskyy said.
The areas still occupied by Russia include the Crimean peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine with a predominantly Russian-speaking population.
An Air Force jet flew Zelenskyy from Rome to the German capital, where he met Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday.
It was his first visit to Berlin since the invasion began and came a day after the German government announced a new military aid package to Ukraine worth more than 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion), including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammo .
Thanking Scholz for the support, Zelenskyy said Germany was now second only to the US in providing aid to Ukraine – and joked that he was working to make Ukraine the largest donor.
“German air defense systems, artillery, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles save Ukrainian lives and bring us closer to victory. Germany is a reliable ally! Together we bring peace closer!” he wrote on Twitter.
Scholz said Berlin has provided Kiev with around 17 billion euros in bilateral aid so far and can count on more in the future.
After initially being reluctant to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, Germany has become one of the largest suppliers of arms to Ukraine, including Leopard 1 and 2 main battle tanks and the advanced IRIS-T SLM air defense system. Modern Western hardware is believed to be crucial to the success of Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive.
In the western German city of Aachen, Zelenskyi also received the prestigious International Charlemagne Prize, awarded to him and the Ukrainian people.
In her congratulatory speech, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen compared the war in Ukraine to the fall of the Iron Curtain more than 30 years ago.
“Every generation has its moment when it needs to stand up and defend democracy and what it believes in,” she said. “For us, this moment has come.”
Zelenskyy accused Moscow of wanting to turn back the wheel of European history.
“Modern Russia was at war not only against us as a free and sovereign state, not only against a united Europe as a global symbol of peace and prosperity,” he said in his acceptance speech. “This is Russia’s war for the past.”
In other developments:
– Zelenskyy’s chief adviser Andriy Yermak said Sunday that five civilians died in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region when an unexploded Russian shell exploded.
– According to the Ukrainian military, Russia launched a “massive” attack on Ukraine using Iranian-made Shahed explosive drones overnight, injuring more than 30 people. Eighteen of the 23 drones were shot down, but those that got through and debris from the intercepted drones damaged 50 apartment buildings, private homes and other buildings, the military said, without giving further details.
– Russia also fired rockets at the western city of Ternopil and the southern city of Mykolaiv, injuring an unspecified number of civilians.
– Shelling by Russian forces killed a 59-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man on Sunday in Chuhuiv district of northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv province, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported on Telegram.
– The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had killed two of its colonels in the Bakhmut area.
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Jordans reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers David Rising in Kiev and Elise Morton in London contributed to this report.