France’s foreign minister pledged his support for Ukraine’s plan for ending the war with Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Saturday that he would work with Ukrainian officials to secure other nations’ backing for the proposal, reports The Guardian.
Presented by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this week, Kyiv’s “victory plan” hopes to compel Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine through negotiations.
The proposal is being considered by Ukraine’s western partners, whose help is vital for Kyiv to resist its bigger neighbour. A key element would be a formal invitation into Nato, which western backers have been reluctant to consider until after the war.
“A Russian victory would be a consecration for the law of the strongest and would push the international order toward chaos,” the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said at a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha. “That is why our exchanges should allow us to make progress on President Zelenskyy’s victory plan and rally the greatest number possible of countries around it.”
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, France has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest military, diplomatic and economic supporters in Europe, and is training and equipping what will become a full new brigade of Ukrainian soldiers for frontline deployment.
Zelenskyy said on Saturday that he expected the brigade would be in Ukraine by the end of November. “Brigade training is going ahead of schedule,” he said.