Macron vows EU ready to back Ukraine ‘for the long term’
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that the EU's support for Ukraine
as it struggles against Russia's invasion would continue "for the long
term."
Six months after the conflict erupted, “Our determination has not
changed and we are ready to maintain this effort for the long term,”
Macron said in a video address to participants in the Crimea Platform
conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“This destabilisation of the international order and the disruptions
that have followed, on the humanitarian level, in terms of energy and
food, are the consequences of the choice made by Russia and Russia alone
to attack Ukraine on February 24th,” he said.
“Against this there can be no weakness, no spirit of compromise,
because it’s a matter of our freedom, for everyone, and of peace
everywhere around the world,” Macron added.
Ukraine’s Western allies have supplied Kyiv with billions of dollars’
worth of military equipment and other aid that staved off a quick
defeat.
But they are wary of joining the fight directly against the Russian
forces that now occupy large parts of Ukraine’s east and south.
