France strongly committed to support Ukraine as long as it takes!

At a time when some doubts about the sustainability of collective support to Ukraine are voiced, let’s recall facts: we have built a stable, solid and united support architecture for the country together with our Ukrainian friends. Not only at the level of EU members, but also at the G7+ level, and bilaterally between France and Ukraine. And this dynamic is far from weakening, as shown during the last two months!

Here are crucial guarantees of stability and determination, which we collectively delivered since June:

1)???? Recent (re)election of Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission, Roberta Metsola as President of the European Parliament, and Kaja Kallas Kallas as EU's foreign policy chief. As a symbol of this continued commitment, the European Parliament in its inaugural session largely adopted its first resolution meant to reaffirm the strong support to Ukraine. ?

2)???? In Puglia, we reaffirmed in G7 format "our unwavering support for Ukraine for as long as it takes". And this declaration goes with action, as it paves the way for an innovative mechanism that we are determined to put in place – an “Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration Loans for Ukraine” (ERA), which will make available approximately 50 bn$ in additional funding for Ukraine by the end of the year stemming from windfall profits of Russian immobilized assets.

3)???? On the defense side, we emphasized at the NATO summit in Washington that "Ukraine's future is in NATO". Again, this declaration goes with a minimum baseline funding of 40 bn€ within the next year.

This sequence for Ukraine kicked off with the D-Day ceremonies in France attended by President Zelensky on June 6 and the bilateral visit to Paris on June 7.

This sequence was marked by the announcement of major bilateral commitments by France in the military, civil and economic fields, which included:

• Transfer of Mirage 2000-5 aircrafts, and training in France of a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers.
• Extension of the Agence fran?aise de développement (AFD) mandate to Ukraine (450 M€ over four years). AFD is therefore the only bilateral player in Ukraine not requiring a sovereign guarantee from the Ukrainian State to carry out projects.

• Creation of a 200 M€ fund in grants to provide solutions for critical infrastructures delivered by French companies. This fund has raised a lot of interest from private companies since its announcement, but also from other partner countries;
• Finally, several major partnerships have been signed between French energy companies and their Ukrainian counterparts (agreements between DTEK / 施耐德电气 ; EDF / Energoatom ; 阿尔斯通运输 / #Ukrzaliznytsia...).

The Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, a few days later, laid the foundation for a European private-sector financing mechanism in Ukraine, as announced by the President of the European Commission. France is determined to conribute to the launch of this crucial mechanism as soon as possible. I also represented France in Berlin to announce the following commitments:

• 100 M€ for additionnal humanitarian support in 2024, through support to international organizations and NGOs in the field.

• A special support in health and energy sectors:

- In the energy sector, we will mobilize 60 M€ in grants over the next few months to finance turnkey solutions from French companies to support the energy sector. We have also nnounced France's first contribution to the Energy Community 's dedicated Ukraine energy support fund (UESF), which will provide a rapid and pooled response to the Ukrainian needs. Finally, 41 power generators for an equivalent of 3.5 megawatts are currently being delivered, and 13 already reached Kharkiv.

- In the health sector - of the 5 agreements signed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health at the Berlin conference, 3 were with France! France will indeed finance solutions for the reconstruction of hospitals; deliver mammographs for breast cancer detection; finance the new Superhumans Center in Odessa for the treatment and rehabilitation of war wounded, which construction work will start in the coming days.

• Two financial guarantees to the EBRD and the IFC - International Finance Corporation for a total of €400 million.

While this public support remains essential, Ukraine reconstruction will only be efficient if the private sector is fully taking part to it. And the French private sector mobilization is ramping-up every day.

This momentum is supported by our action to regularly bring together French companies to raise their awareness of the opportunities offered by the reconstruction of Ukraine, such as recently in Région Sud - Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur , during a Business forum at the Senate with more than 200 BtoB meeting thanks to @Business France, or online with Nouveaux Systèmes Energétiques, Comité Stratégique de Filière .

France, which is Ukraine’s 1st foreign employer, is reaffirming its position as a major economic player in Ukraine and a driving force in promoting private sector investments in the country. Several investments and industrial agreements show the confidence of our companies in the country's future.

• In the telecom sector: Xavier Niel 's acquisition of Ukraine's 1st land-line operator and 3rd mobile operator - this unprecedented deal, which should close in the next few days, will represent the largest transaction in the Ukrainian private sector for over ten years ; the first financial closing of the Phoenix fund to support Ukrainian tech start-ups by the president of La French Tech Kyiv ; the strengthening of the presence of several French companies in Ukraine in this sector (doubling of 凯捷咨询 's workforce, for example, over the next three years...);

• In the transport sector: the supply by Saarstahl AG of 20,000 tons of rails produced in France in Hayange; the signing by 阿尔斯通运输 of an agreement with #Ukrzaliznytsia for the supply of dozens of locomotives...

France remains strongly committed to support Ukraine!

And this commitment expends in every sphere possible!? This is shown by the support of our Ministry of Sports, which has helped the Ukrainian delegation of 140 athletes to train in France for the past year. We wish them the best chances of victory, while almost 500 of athletes and coaches have died since the start of the war.

?? Thank you all for your exceptional involvement!

Présidence de la République Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères Ministères économiques et Financiers Bertrand Dumont Aurelien Lechevallier Brice Roquefeuil Rémy Rioux Ga?l Veyssière Business France Laurent Saint-Martin Bpifrance Nicolas Dufourcq Expertise France Jeremie Pellet and many others.