“France and Germany can change the game,” said Ukrainian president on Wednesday, February 8, when his relations with the two countries have often been tense since the start of the war.
by Cécile Ducourieux (London, correspondent), Cédric Pietéturunga and Philippe Ricard
From one surprise visit to the other, from London to Paris, the message from Volodymyr Zelensky did not change an iota on Wednesday, February 8: the Ukrainian president multiplied the calls to receive “the earliest Possible “fighter planes and heavy armaments in order to resist any new Russian offensive, and recover the occupied territories.
If no concrete announcement has been revealed, his tour, which was to continue Thursday in Brussels, constituted his second trip outside his country since the triggering of the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022, two months after his Travel to Washington.
In the United States, the Ukrainian Head of State had come to ensure that the Biden administration, and especially the House of Representatives, who was about to go under the control of the Republicans, were going to continue military support , which, in the general opinion, has at least allowed his country to stem, failing to repel him completely, the Russian invader. In London, as in Paris, where Mr. Zelensky found the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, alongside Emmanuel Macron, it was rather to encourage European leaders to increase their support, much less than that of Washington, to try to win the war.
In his mind, the message is addressed above all to France and Germany, whose military restraint and the long -standing concern to speak to Vladimir Putin have often crushed the Ukrainian president since the start of hostilities. Between kyiv and Paris, and even more between kyiv and Berlin, the climate has very often been electric, these last twelve months, but each makes efforts to display their good will, while new Russian attacks are feared.
Zelensky: “Paris and Berlin can change the situation”
“The crime of aggression cannot be tolerated, even less by a power such as Russia,” assured Emmanuel Macron, alongside Volodymyr Zelensky in the Grand Winter Salon of the Elysée. “Russia cannot, or should, prevail,” he said by promising, without specifying his intentions at this stage, the continuation of arms deliveries. Olaf Scholz has paid tribute to “courage” and “tenacity” of Ukrainians.
“France and Germany can change the situation and that’s how I see our discussions today. The sooner we will have long -range weapons and modern aircraft (…), earlier the Assault of Russia will end, “said the Ukrainian president, while Emmanuel Macron had just insisted on the need, one day or another after” the victory “of Ukraine, to” build peace “.
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