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French foreign minister promises France will boost arms to Ukraine

France's new foreign minister Catherine Colonna said on a visit to Kyiv Monday that Paris is ready to boost military aid to Ukraine to help it counter Russia's invasion.

Published: 30 May 2022 16:24 CEST

French foreign minister promises France will boost arms to Ukraine

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna visits the memorial for Ukrainian servicemen killed during the Russian occupation in Kyiv (Photo by Sergei CHUZAVKOV / AFP)

“France is not at war with Russia”, but it will “continue to reinforce arms deliveries,” Colonna said at a news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

She said the arms will arrive “in the coming weeks.”

Colonna defended French President Emmanuel Macron, who has come under fire in Ukraine and some Western countries for holding frequent phone calls with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

“The conversations between the President of the Republic and Vladimir Putin are direct and frank,” she said.

She added that “it does not seem to be the hour for negotiations but, as President Zelensky said, the day for dialogue will have to come.

“We are at Ukraine’s side to facilitate this if it wishes,” she said.

The pair also discussed Ukraine’s closer integration with the European Union and Colonna said France was “in favour of a rapprochement with Ukraine and even an accelerated one. It is a legitimate request,” she said.

Kyiv has expressed frustration at some EU countries for not wanting to fast-forward its member status in the face of Moscow’s attack.

“I asked my French colleague not only to support the decision to grant Ukraine EU candidate status, but also to convince those who still doubt the expediency of this step,” Ukraine’s Kuleba said.

Colonna, who took office this month, also visited the town of Bucha, where Russian forces allegedly killed hundreds of civilians.

“This should never have happened. It must never happen again,” Colonna told reporters after visiting an Orthodox church in Bucha.

She said France stood with victims of alleged Russian atrocities and that her country would “do everything in its power to restore peace.”

Colonna said France had been “the first one to respond” by dispatching gendarmes to Bucha to probe killings alongside Ukrainian investigators.

She said she hoped that work would be completed as quickly as possible, “so that families can see their loved ones laid to rest in proper graves”.

Colonna is the highest-ranking French official to visit Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24th.

She was also to hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports and the impact on global food security.

Member comments

Anonymous - 1 June 2022 at 17:23 CEST

France is not sending nearly enough arms to Ukraine.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.