Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a security pact with France on Friday (16 February), hours after securing a similar deal with Germany, as Paris hardened its tone on Russia’s threat to the West, reports Euractiv.
Before landing in Paris, Zelenskyy signed a similar bilateral deal with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, looking to ensure long-lasting military and economic support to the war-torn nation.
These country-by-country deals follow on from G7 leaders’ commitment last July to commit to long-term help while Ukraine is not yet a full-fledged NATO member.
Both agreements are part of Zelensky’s drive to shore up support for his forces, who are struggling to hold off Russian attacks on the frontline city of Avdiivka.
“France confirms that Ukraine’s future membership of NATO would make an effective contribution to peace and stability in Europe,” the French deal reads.
The security agreements also come as EU’s top military brass has warned that Russia could pose a serious risk to NATO members and the EU in the near future.
“Over the last few months, [Russia] accumulated and hardened its aggressiveness – not just against Ukraine, but against all of us,” Macron said on Friday.
He warned of a “new phase” in Russia’s threat to “the destabilisation of the world, not hesitating to threaten […] our interests”.
There is “an aggressive phase towards EU countries with disinformation actions, but also cyber-attacks, the nature of which has gone beyond certain thresholds,” the French president added, calling EU and international actors for a “collective response”.
The Kremlin’s grip on opposition is also tighter than ever – Macron and Zelenskyy met just hours after Russian media confirmed that Putin’s fiercest critic Alexei Navalny had died after collapsing during a walk in a penal colony.
“It’s clear Putin is a murderer, that’s just a fact, there’s no secret there,” Zelenskyy said.