In an interview with Euronews, French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin questioned whether Russia really wants a peace deal with Ukraine, considering the continued attacks being waged by the Kremlin against the country.
Last week, Vautrin visited Ukraine for the first time since taking on her role last October. She spoke of the many alerts she heard, warning of impending attacks, and the strikes which occurred during her visit.
“On the night I travelled between Poland and Kyiv, there were alerts in the west, there were attacks to bring down energy resources once again, and on the train back to Lviv, there were alerts there too, so it’s an everyday reality,” she said.
“When you are witness to this, when we see this situation, we ask ourselves, do the Russians really want peace?” Vautrin added.
She nonetheless commended the efforts being made by the United States, together with Ukraine, to hold talks with Russia to come to a peace agreement.
Trilateral talks were held in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, last week, aimed at ending the war. Despite no reports of a breakthrough, the two-day meeting produced a new prisoner swap deal, as well as an agreement on future talks.
Following the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the US has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal, and that Ukraine accepted a US invitation to hold a new round of peace talks next week. Russia has not yet responded.
Vautrin emphasised the need for European leaders to be involved in future talks. “Because, as you know, particularly with the Coalition of the Willing, we will be there to ensure that once hostilities cease, a ceasefire is declared, or better still, a peace agreement is reached, we will be there to guarantee conditions of security.”
‘Missiles are key for Ukraine’
During her visit to Ukraine, Vautrin was shown the combat positions of anti-aircraft missile units of Ukraine’s armed forces and the country’s missile deterrent system.
Missiles are the weapons that Ukraine needs most, she said. “The issue is really the battle in the sky. That was the first thing President Zelensky asked me to do: to relay the need for missiles,” she said.
She said the request for more missiles was part of discussions at a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
“Together with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, we held a roundtable discussion with all the ministers present, starting with the question: How can you convince your prime minister to go further?”
She noted that France’s current prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, is the country’s previous defence minister and a former armyman.
Vautrin added that behind this push is the overarching need for all European countries to “realise that defending Ukraine means defending Europe”.
“It’s important for all Europeans to understand that the security of the continent is undeniably linked to the security of Ukraine.”
The French defence minister rejected the notion that repeated warnings from top French military officials of a possible war with Russia are overly alarmist.
France’s top general had faced accusations of war-mongering after warning that the country must be ready to “lose its children” against the background of the threat posed by Russia.
The comments by the Chief of the Defence Staff of France, Fabien Mandon, in a speech to local mayors in November last year revived a debate over how far France and its European allies should be prepared to go in the Ukraine conflict.
“The question that arises when we have a conflict on the European continent is that we must prepare for a high-intensity conflict,” Vautrin said. “The best way to avoid conflict is to prepare for it, and that is what we are doing.”