The French Minister of the Armed Forces arrived in kyiv on Wednesday to discuss additional military support for Ukraine, insisting that the support of the French government is unwavering as efforts are made to reach a possible negotiated end to the Russian invasion.
The French Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, went to the Ukrainian capital after a trip to Poland, where he announced on Tuesday an agreement for the sale to the Poles of two French-made military satellites.
In kyiv, Mr. Lecornu laid a wreath at the Heroes’ Wall to pay tribute to Ukrainians who died defending their country against Russian invasion. He was due to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and army officials.
While France has been less vocal about its military support for the Ukrainians than the United States and Britain, France has sent a steady supply of weapons to Ukraine since the invasion of Russia on February 24. .
France also hosted two conferences on aid to Ukraine this month. But many in Ukraine remain critical of the French government’s response to the war due to President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to maintain contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as seek a negotiated solution.
“Our support for Ukraine has been continuous since the start of the war,” Minister Lecornu wrote on Twitter before his trip.
It was not immediately clear what concrete agreements might come out of the French politician’s visit to kyiv. He came to Ukraine a week after Mr. Zelensky’s visit to the United States, Ukraine’s main ally.
France has provided Ukraine with a substantial part of its Caesar gun arsenal, as well as anti-tank missiles, Crotale air defense missile batteries and rocket launchers. It also trains some 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers on French soil. President Macron pledged last week to provide another injection of weapons in early 2023.
Western military aid to Ukraine has angered Moscow. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Washington and NATO of stoking the war in an effort to weaken Russia and warned that the conflict could spiral out of control.
At this point, the fighting is mostly concentrated in the east of the country, but neither Moscow nor Kyiv have reported major gains in recent weeks.
While Russia and Ukraine have claimed to be willing to participate in the peace talks, their stated terms remain far apart. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated on Wednesday that any peace plan must recognize four regions of Ukraine that Russia has illegally annexed as Russian territory, a request Kyiv flatly rejects.
“Highlight” in Bakhmout
Russian forces have continued their offensive to take over all of eastern Ukraine, focusing in recent weeks on Bakhmout, a city in Donetsk province. Ukrainian forces were pushing a counteroffensive towards Kreminna, a town in neighboring Luhansk province, hoping to reclaim the area and potentially split Russian troops to the east.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in its analysis published early Wednesday that Russian efforts to take Bakhmut could be nearing a “climax” due to combat losses and deterioration of equipment.
Russian advances are likely to decline “if Russian forces continue advancing, unless significant new reinforcements and supplies of artillery shells arrive soon”, according to the analysis.
The latest Russian shelling injured at least eight civilians, including three in Bakhmout, Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
In the south of the country, in the Kherson region, Russian shelling hit a maternity ward shortly after two women gave birth there. Ukrainian officials said no one was injured there. Regional Governor Yaroslav Yanyshevych said the shelling also damaged residential buildings, a day care center and a bakery.
President Zelensky’s office later reported that the shelling of a riverside village in the area injured three civilians, including a 14-year-old.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions so far.
Russian attacks on power plants and other infrastructure have left millions of Ukrainians without heat or electricity for hours or days at a time.