French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed on Monday that the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive against Russian forces had begun. “The Ukrainian counter-offensive started several days ago,” he said alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Elysee Palace. “It is intended to be deployed over several weeks, even several months,” added the French president, who brings together German and Polish leaders in the format of the Weimar Triangle, a platform for regular summit meetings between the three countries.
“We want” this counter-offensive to be “as successful as possible so that we can then trigger a phase of negotiation under good conditions”, further underlined the French president. Emmanuel Macron also confirmed that France will continue to “intensify” its military aid to Ukraine.
“The war of aggression waged by Russia is already a strategic and geopolitical failure for the aggressor,” President Macron said. President Duda for his part insisted on the need to send a “clear signal of a clear prospect” of Ukraine’s membership of NATO at the next Alliance summit on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius ( Lithuania).
A “green light” must be given to Ukraine, he underlined, without however going so far as to speak of immediate membership, very unlikely as long as the country is at war because of the risks extension of the conflict to member countries of the Alliance.
Pending this entry into NATO, President Macron had proposed on May 31 in Bratislava to provide “tangible” security guarantees to Ukraine in order to dissuade Russia from renewing such aggression. “We negotiate them at the highest level,” noted President Duda.