No French interests in Ukraine – major opposition figure

The National Rally politician says France must give Kiev “the means to enter negotiations” with Moscow

The only way France can help Ukraine is to give it the means to negotiate with Russia, Marine Le Pen has said.

The former French presidential candidate and parliamentary leader of the far-right National Rally party also told BFM TV broadcaster on Wednesday that France’s vital interests were not at stake in the Ukraine conflict.

Her comments came after President Emmanual Macron refused to rule out the possibility of deploying NATO troops to Ukraine. Several of the bloc’s member states subsequently voiced their opposition to such a proposal.

Media reports have since claimed that France may have been preparing to deploy troops to the conflict zone for months, while a number of outlets also alleged that NATO military personnel are already operating in Ukraine – something Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski appeared to confirm on Wednesday.

Le Pen, who has contested presidential elections in France on three occasions, insisted that “France’s vital interests are not in question” in Ukraine.

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She added that “the only way to help Ukraine is to give it the means to enter into negotiations” with Russia.

Le Pen accused Macron of “playing politics with war,” claiming that the president may not be fully aware of what is going on on the battlefield in Ukraine.

She also argued that Moscow was unlikely to attack European countries as it “does not have the military means to engage in a territorial war with the whole” of the continent.

Last week, French legislators voted in favor of a 10-year security pact with Ukraine, which was signed by President Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, last month. The National Rally abstained, with Le Pen claiming that Macron was “hijacking, exploiting and instrumentalizing a major international crisis for a short-term electoral agenda.”

She has consistently opposed plans for Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the EU, as well as economic sanctions on Russia and the delivery of heavy weapons to Kiev.

On Tuesday, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, claimed that France was preparing to deploy as many as 2,000 troops to Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his supporters that soldiers from NATO states were already present in Ukraine. He also said a conflict between NATO and Russia could not be ruled out, but added that everyone probably understood the dire consequences of such a development.