Exclusive blitz interview with the Ambassador of the French Republic to Ukraine Gaël Veyssière for Interfax-Ukraine News Agency

Text: Valerie Proshchenko

The most important question concerns France’s political crisis and instability, as French PM Barnier faces a no-confidence vote. How do you assess the impact of this situation on support for Ukraine?

There is indeed a complicated political situation in France now, we are waiting for the designation of a new prime minister. But as the French ambassador to Ukraine, I want to emphasize an important point: there is very strong support in France to continue our politics of supporting Ukraine. This is guaranteed and decided upon by the president of the French Republic, who is going to serve until 2027. The discourse of supporting Ukraine was successfully implemented by the different governments that we had, and I'm sure it will be continued by the new French government.

And it is still implemented by the caretaker government that we have right today. This policy is based upon a very large agreement and support among the main political forces in the French National Assembly, apart from some people who would not agree with that. But there is a strong and very important majority support in the Assembly.

I am sure that our politics will continue, and there is no reason to doubt that it will be different. And we all hope that the political situation in France will be stabilized soon.

 

And you do not expect that military aid to Ukraine could be reduced somehow in the coming weeks or months due to the political situation in France?

Definitely no.

The President did say clearly that France was committed and would continue to support Ukraine in military areas. And we will do whatever we can and what would be needed to help the Ukrainians. So, we can even increase our support.

Moreover, we publicly announced that in the first semester of 2025, so pretty soon now, France is going to deliver the first Mirage 2000-5 fighter planes to Ukraine. These fighter planes will be delivered as planned. And actually, the training of the Ukrainian pilots and mechanics experts is going on right now.

 

And of course, you cannot disclose the approximate number of aircraft planned for delivery.

It has not been said publicly by either France or Ukrainian authorities, so it would not be my role to make an announcement. But I hope that one day, together with the Minister of Defense, we'll be able to communicate more on that.

 

We have heard the news that President Macron is going to visit Poland soon. Can you confirm the information in the media about his plan for Ukraine?

The president is supposed to visit Poland on December 12th, that is true.  But I have nothing to say about the information that was published in the media. I cannot confirm that there is any French plan.

But what I can definitely say is that we all have to think about how we can help Ukraine, depending on the situation, of course. And we should have no red lines because the Russians don't have red lines. That means that we should have no red lines either.

And we said several times that if it would be useful and needed, and there would be a request from the Ukrainian authorities, we could consider having French troops deployed in Ukraine. So, of course, we are thinking about that.

But sure, it all depends on what Ukraine would need. Would that be in the framework of security guarantees? Would that be in the framework of a peace agreement? Would that be in the framework of a ceasefire or something else? So, we said that we were ready to think about it and to discuss this.

 

But actually, there were rumors that President Macron didn't find any supporters on this point.

When he spoke about this in February, it was not a plan. The president said we should not refrain from considering this. We were indeed the first ones to say so. So we could seem a bit alone in this. We think that it's necessary to think about it.

Right now, the question is not really on the table. But we have to get prepared in case the question is on the table. Right now, it is not.

 

And it is impossible not to mention the important diplomatic work by France in organizing a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and President-elect Donald Trump. Do you think the event had a huge influence on the mutual understanding between the two leaders?

I am confident it's very important that President Zelensky would have direct contact with President-elect Trump.  They also met at the end of September in New York. That's very good.

We also want to engage with President-elect Trump. And we, of course, want to engage with President Zelensky. It's very important to understand each other better and to have a plan for the next steps and how we can continue to support Ukraine.

I think that meeting in Paris was very constructive and very helpful. Because direct communication is what Ukraine needs. But I think also this is what Europe needs. Because of the security of Ukraine, it is also Europe's security. So, we have to get involved in that.

We do hope that there will be other opportunities like that.

 

President Zelensky also calls upon to strengthen Ukraine’s long-range capabilities. France provided Ukraine with SCALP missiles and granted permission to use them for strikes on Russian territory. Will France continue deliveries of these expensive but needed missiles?

Yes, we continue to provide some SCALP missiles. We don't have many, and we have to buy more, so it takes some time. It's also complicated because we have to ensure that our country's protection is fine. But we are making the efforts as much as we can, and we are sending new French SCALP missiles to Ukraine, as Britain is sending some Storm Shadows, and the Americans provide with ATACMS.

And you know our position on the authorization to use long-range weapons, including in Russia. We had no red line in that, and military targets inside Russia are legitimate.

So, Ukraine has the right to target some Russian military capabilities because this is a crazy situation where the Russians can attack Ukraine from Russia, and Ukraine cannot eliminate this threat. It would be unfair. We were the first ones to say this, and France continues to support it.

 

What is your position on Ukraine’s invitation to NATO now? We are talking only about the invitation, not joining.

France has no problems in supporting the idea of NATO invitation to Ukraine. We said that publicly, even before the Washington summit. And it continues to be our position. But any kind of decision about NATO has to be a unanimous decision, with all nations that belong to NATO.

I think it's important that we get prepared to think about what security guarantees Ukraine needs inside the NATO framework, but maybe also outside the NATO framework, and how can it work. So that we can be prepared for any situation, and to be able to assist Ukraine as much as we can.