The visit by Zelensky to France is his ninth since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Monday met France’s Emmanuel Macron at an air base outside Paris, seeking a major deal to acquire French air defence hardware including fighter jets, an AFP correspondent said.
Zelensky, who has suffered setbacks over the last week due to a corruption scandal at home and Russian forces closing in on the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, wrote on X ahead of the talks that he expects the meeting to result in a “historic deal”.
At the Villacoublay air base, Zelensky is to inspect Rafale fighter jets and its weaponry, the next-generation SAMP-T air defence system and several drone systems before holding talks with the French president.
A letter of intent on the air defence accord, the precise content of which has not been disclosed, is then to be signed, according to a French presidential source, who asked not to be named.
The aim of the accord is to “put French excellence in the arms industry at the service of Ukraine’s defence” and to “enable it (Kyiv) to acquire the systems it needs to respond to Russian aggression”.
The visit by Zelensky to France is his ninth since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
It comes ahead of what analysts predict will be a tough winter for Kyiv as Moscow presses on the battlefield.
Overnight, Russian strikes killed three people in a city in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, its military administration chief said. Seven people were killed after Russia struck apartment blocks across the capital Kyiv on Friday.
Zelensky at the weekend announced an overhaul of state-owned energy companies after a corruption scandal, ordering two ministers to resign and sanctioning a former business partner who was named as its mastermind.
