Special envoy to La Pommeraye (Maine-et-Loire)
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It started with public buildings lit up in the colors of Ukraine, sometimes a few flags hanging from the windows.
Then collections appeared in town halls, businesses, schools.
Clothes, medicines, hygiene products.
Then, the gasoline increased… With each passing day, the consequences of the war in Ukraine are becoming more and more visible in France, the conflict, more and more palpable.
From now on, it is the refugees who arrive in France.
Often in the greatest destitution, always in terrible distress.
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Emmanuel Macron visited Tuesday in La Pommeraye, in Maine-et-Loire, a shelter for exiled Ukrainians.
Families who arrived last Friday via Poland, then Germany, already overwhelmed by the uninterrupted flow of refugees fleeing the war.
More than 3 million people have left the country.
France will welcome 100,000.
At least.
As she can.
In La Pommeraye, they arrived in a France Horizon home.
The organization usually accommodates rejected asylum seekers who have agreed to return to their country.
This time, 93 Ukrainians arrived, including 19 children.
All the asylum application files were completed in an emergency within 48 hours.
They are now waiting to join relatives for some, to be relocated for others.
“We will do everything to stop the war”
In the large hall of the reception centre, everyone tells their story to the President of the Republic.
Always the same.
The bombings.
Families holed up in air-raid shelters.
Husbands going into battle.
And finally escape.
“
We tried to stay as long as possible.
We left when they bombed buildings, without taking any belongings
, ”says a mother.
Her child is crying.
“
Your father is fighting for your country to be free, and we are going to do everything to stop the war
,” the president tries to console him.
But there are too many tears.
The families have no news of the men who remained to defend the country against the Russian army.
Mothers fear for their children, worry about their husbands, don't know how to contact them.
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The fatigue of exile is immense.
“
Mariupol is hell.
I beg you to close the sky.
It's useless to argue with Putin.
It won't stop there.
A day of talks costs hundreds of lives
,” one woman implores.
You have to explain to him that it's not possible, but it's inaudible.
This is not the strategy chosen by Europe.
“
We are trying to prevent him from financing his war, to isolate him, to make this war stop without it becoming a world war.
I try to do what is fairest
”, argues Emmanuel Macron.
“
Their request to close the airspace is legitimate,
he explains after his visit
.
But the choice we have made is not to go to war with Russia.
But to decide on a zone of air neutrality is to go to war.
“The sanctions therefore.
And diplomacy.
And the pressures too.
Everything to try to stifle the Russian war effort.
“Our duty is to welcome them”
On Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron offered France's protection to Marina Ovsyannikova, the journalist who had held up a sign against the war live on Russian state TV.
“
We are going to launch diplomatic steps
,” assured the Head of State.
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On Tuesday again, Europe once again tightened its sanctions against Moscow.
And still on Tuesday, the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers traveled to kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelensky.
All of this takes time.
And the outcome still seems distant.
Enough for Europe and France to start organizing themselves over the long term to welcome refugees who all want to return to their country.
“
I thank France for welcoming us, but my heart is in Ukraine
”, slipped a Ukrainian mother to Emmanuel Macron.
“
Our duty is to welcome them and protect them in the best possible conditions.
France will take its share
, ”assured the President of the Republic a little later.
As long as it takes.