In a speech in Dresden yesterday, broadcast on the Elysee Palaace’s X account, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “We, the Europeans, are not at war with Russia and the Russian people.” However, he added the EU countries plan to continue providing assistance to Ukraine for as long as it takes, and also support efforts for a long-lasting peaceful settlement in Ukraine, though “peace will not mean the capitulation of Ukraine. It will be a peace that the Ukrainians themselves will choose.”
As for the support of France for Ukraine, TASS reports that the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Alexander Syrsky, has signed documents that will allow French instructors to visit training centers. “I welcome France’s initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen. I have already signed documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centers soon and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel,” he wrote on his Telegram channel following online talks with French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also took part in the negotiations. Syrsky expressed hope that Kiev’s other Western partners would join Paris’s initiative.
It is not clear whether the documents, allowing visits and familiarization, also translate to the controversial training by the French military of Ukrainian servicemen on Ukrainian territory. Syrsky welcomes the initiative for this, suggesting the direct link. Kiev has been busy trying to inveigle its Western allies into a direct war with Russia. TASS does not report a French source on the signed documents.
