The new Minister of Foreign Affairs made his first visit to a foreign country by going to kyiv on Saturday January 13 to reaffirm Paris’ support for Ukraine. Appointed to replace Catherine Colonna, Stéphane Séjourné, aged 38, arrived at the Ukrainian capital’s central station in the morning for a day of meetings with Ukrainian officials, including the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The latter declared on Telegram that he had discussed Ukrainian defense needs with the head of French diplomacy: “joint production of drones, artillery, additional strengthening of air defense. »
The purpose of this trip, which her predecessor was supposed to make before Thursday’s cabinet reshuffle, was to remind “sustainable support” from France to the country at war. “Ukraine is and will remain France’s priority,” And this, “despite the multiplication of crises”declared Stéphane Séjourné. “Russia hopes that Ukraine and its supporters will give up before it does. We will not weaken, our determination is intact”he also said.
Welcomed in a cold and snowy capital, Stéphane Séjourné paid tribute to the soldiers killed since the start of the war on Saint-Michel Square in kyiv, where portraits of soldiers who fell at the front are exhibited. He also met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, as well as the country’s Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, and the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Olga Stefanichyna.
International support questioned
The visit took place as kyiv prepares to enter a third year of war on February 24 and the situation in the country has never been so worrying. Stéphane Séjourné arrived a few hours after the end of a Russian night attack. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, eight of the forty drones and missiles launched into the country’s skies were destroyed by anti-aircraft defense when “more than twenty machines” would not have reached their target, diverted by “electronic countermeasures”. Russian forces have intensified their bombing by sending waves of kamikaze drones followed by dozens of missiles since the end of December 2023.
On Wednesday, during a trip to Lithuania, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deplored that his country “sorely missed” of Western defense systems. Faced with the intensification of these attacks, Ukrainians are worried about running out of ammunition to continue protecting their cities. Concerning the attack on the night of Friday to Saturday, the Russian army declared that it had struck the country’s arms factories and assured that it had reached “all” its targets.
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