France stands with Ukraine. President Emmanuel Macron reiterated Paris’ support for kyiv on Thursday after a new deadly Russian strike and in the face of the Kremlin’s stated desire to complete the conquest of Donbass in the east of the country.
During a telephone conversation with his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, he condemned “the intensification of Russian strikes and their indiscriminate nature,” the Élysée Palace said. At least 55 people were killed and more than 300 others injured in the Russian strike that hit a military institute in Poltava, in central Ukraine, on Tuesday. France remains “more than ever at the side of the Ukrainian people” and will continue to “support Ukraine for as long and intensely as necessary to thwart Russia’s war of aggression,” he stressed.
Restore Ukraine’s “legitimate rights”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday displayed his unwavering determination to conquer all of Donbass, the large industrial zone in eastern Ukraine, where his army continues to advance despite the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian region of Kursk. He also said he was willing to hold talks with kyiv on the basis of those in spring 2022, if Ukraine requests it, while Moscow had previously said it ruled out any discussion because of the Ukrainian attack launched in early August in the Kursk region. The Kremlin has set as conditions for the opening of peace negotiations the cession of the territories of Donbass and that Ukraine renounces joining NATO.
Emmanuel Macron reiterated France’s “determination” to help Ukraine “achieve a just and lasting peace that restores Ukraine’s legitimate rights, while respecting the fundamental principles of international law.”