French President Emmanuel Macron will host Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in Paris for talks on the nation's wartime needs. Ahead of the meeting, Macron told TV stations on Thursday that France plans to provide Mirage 2000 warplanes and training to Ukraine.
"As Russian strikes intensify on the front line and against energy infrastructure, the two presidents will discuss the situation on the ground," the presidential palace said earlier this week.
The meeting between the two leaders takes place after D-Day commemorations on Thursday.
In a TV interview on Thursday evening, Macron said France is to transfer Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train their Ukrainian pilots as part of a new military cooperation with Kyiv.
He did not specify how many Mirages France would provide, by when or under what financial terms.
The Ukrainian president, who will be welcomed by France's Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu with military honours on Friday morning, will later visit a site of the Franco-German arms group KNDS near Paris.
The defence group makes artillery guns being used in Ukraine.
Zelensky will also deliver a speech in France's National Assembly and meet with the speaker of the lower house Yael Braun-Pivet, who visited Ukraine in March.
News of his speech met with criticism from the opposition, with the parliamentary leader of the right-wing Republicans, Olivier Marleix, saying it was "inappropriate" to invite Zelensky to speak just days before the upcoming European elections are to be held in France.
Braun-Pivet said Zelensky's visit was timed for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings on 6 June.
It follows the Ukrainian president's trip to France on 16 February, when he and Macron signed a bilateral agreement on security cooperation.
Military hardware
The France-Ukraine agreement says that "in the event of future Russian armed attack against Ukraine", France may "provide Ukraine with swift and sustained security assistance, modern military equipment across all domains as necessary".
France provided Ukraine with some €1.7 billion in military aid in 2022 and €2.1 billion in 2023. This year, the agreement says, that figure will grow to up to €3 billion in additional support.
According to a statement from the French Ministry of Defence, France delivered some 2.8 million artillery shells to Ukraine between 24 February 2022 – the start of Russia’s invasion – and 31 December 2023.
It also provided hardware including anti-tank systems, artillery weapons, rocket launchers, mortars, armed personnel carriers, trucks, inflatable boats, helmets and bulletproof armour.
Shortly after Zelensky's last visit, France hosted a conference on providing support for Ukraine, after which Macron announced measures to provide more weapons to Kyiv.
Additionally, the French president did not rule out sending soldiers to Ukraine, sparking controversy among his allies.
Last month, Ukraine's army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said that French military instructors would arrive in Ukraine "soon", but later said Kyiv was merely engaged in "talks" with France and other allies on the issue.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, warned that French military instructors training soldiers in Ukraine would be a "legitimate target" for Russian strikes.
(with newswires)
