Paris, Feb 17: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement with France hours after he officialised a similar one with Germany.
The agreements send a strong signal of long-term backing as Kyiv works to shore up Western support nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale war.
Zelenskyy was greeted in Paris at the Elysee presidential palace by President Emmanuel Macron.
The agreement provides an additional package worth USD 3.2 billion in military aid this year, the largest annual amount France has given to Ukraine since the war began.
“The outcome of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine will be decisive for our interests, our values, our security and our model of society,” Macron said.
“Yes, we must further invest” to support Ukraine “at a greater scale and in the long term,” he added. Macron said he would travel to Ukraine by mid-March.
Zelenskyy’s stop in France comes after he met earlier in the day in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said Berlin was providing another USD 1.2 billion package of military aid. (AP)
