French President Emmanuel Macron said he hopes Ukraine’s military counteroffensive against Russian forces will be as successful as possible and lead to talks.
“The Ukrainian counteroffensive began several days ago, this offensive will be carried out over several days or several months.,” he told a joint news conference in Paris on Monday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
“We hope it is as victorious as possible to be able to then launch a phase of negotiations in good conditions, but our support will last as long as necessary.”
The three leaders were speaking ahead of a working dinner to discuss coordinating military assistance to Kyiv, long-term security guarantees to ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and an upcoming summit of the NATO alliance in Vilnius.
According to the Ukraine Support Tracker from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Poland has provided aid worth €3.5 billion ($3.8 billion), or 0.63% of gross domestic product, Germany €7.3 billion, or 0.2% of GDP, and France €1.5 billion euros, or 0.06% of GDP.
Macron said he had a long conversation with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a few days ago in which he discussed support for Ukraine.
“We have intensified deliveries of weapons and munitions, armed vehicles and logistics support,” Macron said. “We will continue in line with the timetable I gave him in the coming days and weeks.”
France, Germany and Poland have regularly discussed cooperation since the nineties in a format dubbed the “Weimar Triangle.”
--With assistance from Michael Nienaber and Piotr Skolimowski.
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
