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France has become a central European hub of political, economic, humanitarian, and defense support for Ukraine, especially amid strategic security uncertainty following the arrival of the new U.S. administration, Ukrainian Ambassador to France Vadym Omelchenko said at the France–Ukraine Forum in Paris.
“Over the past year, France has fully transformed into a pan-European hub for Ukraine’s political, economic, humanitarian, and defense support,” Omelchenko noted. “In 2025 alone we have seen 52 high-level contacts — including two visits by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, eight meetings between the two presidents at multilateral events, and three visits to Paris by top Ukrainian government officials.”
For the first time in modern Ukrainian diplomacy, France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot was invited as an honorary guest to the annual Ukrainian Ambassadors’ Conference. Ukraine’s parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk also addressed the French Senate, while French ministers and MPs visited the front line and frontline regions.
Omelchenko stressed that France has stepped up efforts to rally European allies, taking a leadership role in coordinating support for Ukraine. France initiated a “Coalition of the Willing” to strengthen Ukraine’s army and defense industry and to prepare for deployment of a contingent in Ukraine once a peace deal is reached.
This year alone, France delivered a €2 billion military aid package, including air-defense systems, missiles, and ammunition, and provided the first batch of Mirage 2000-5F fighter jets. Since the start of the full-scale war, French instructors have trained over 15,000 Ukrainian troops in France and Poland.
France is also helping war-affected regions rebuild. Seven new partnerships were signed this year between French and Ukrainian cities — among them Le Havre–Mariupol, Nantes & Saint-Nazaire–Kherson, Amiens–Kryvyi Rih, and Montpellier–Mykolaiv.
The remarks came during the fourth “France–Ukraine” forum, organized by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and the New Europe Center in Paris.
