He responds to Emmanuel Macron's comments.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné spoke about the situation in Ukraine in an interview on French television channel LCI on Tuesday evening.
“We are experiencing a tipping point which must lead us to stand up to Russia and we must play on the balance of power to protect the French, protect the Europeans,” he said, adding: “Our conviction is is that we must continue to support Ukraine.”
The French head of state, traveling to Prague, judged earlier Tuesday that it was "necessary" to shake up Ukraine's allies, urging them to "not be cowardly" in the face of an "unstoppable" Russia .
Emmanuel Macron also said he “accepts” his recent controversial comments on the possibility of sending Western soldiers to Ukraine for support, non-combatant missions.
On the question of sending troops, the vast majority of Western countries had already made it known that they were absolutely not considering such a scenario.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: from Prague, Emmanuel Macron castigates “the spirit of defeat”
Questioned about these statements by Emmanuel Macron, Stéphane Séjourné affirmed: “We must defeat Russia without waging war against Russia, this is the framework that the President of the Republic has set (…) and the framework of cobelligerence must not be achieved.
(…) We have never crossed the stage of cobelligerence and we will not cross it,” he insisted.
“If Ukraine falls, I won’t give too much of the EU”
“France speaks in a slightly different framework, it is a power equipped with (
nuclear weapons
);
I think that France can speak as an equal to Russia,” continued the minister.
“The messages that were sent back by France and by the Europeans too, are an element of the balance of power” with Russia, he said.
“If Ukraine falls, Russia will probably have inclinations, and if Russia has inclinations, there is a risk of war;
there will be cascading consequences, and I am not giving too much credit to the European Union (…), we must avoid this scenario,” he said.
Asked about the European elections on June 9, the French minister judged that there was “a risk of generalized
Frexit
” after these elections and “probably a risk of blocking of institutions”.
“And a blockage of institutions means no aid to Ukraine,” he stressed.
The head of French diplomacy specified that he would be touring the Baltic States “at the end of the week” to “be able to discuss the context with them”.