Assure Ukraine of its solidarity, announce the support of the three main European powers for kyiv’s accession to the status of candidate for membership of the European Union, and correct the situation after stormy declarations by Emmanuel Macron: the program was ambitious for the visit of the European trio formed by Emmanuel Macron, Mario Draghi and Olaf Scholz and accompanied by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
Statements welcome
However, he left Ukrainian civil society with an impression of too little, while Berlin and Paris in particular are regularly accused by kyiv of wanting to push Ukraine into concessions. “A late visit” summarizes, in the pages of the weekly Focusformer Ukrainian diplomat Alexander Khara, assuring that “the so-called old Europe (…) watched us from afar.
However, there is no question for the Ukrainian authorities to deny the symbolism of this visit. “A historic day”,said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after this one, “who saw Ukraine feel the support of four powerful European countries at once”. The support displayed by the four European leaders for Ukraine’s candidacy for the EU, the announcement of the delivery of six French Caesar-type howitzers and the statement by Emmanuel Macron assuring that “France and Germany will never dictate the conditions to Ukraine” possible negotiations were seen as a significant step forward.
“The French even mentioned victory, which must include the return of Crimea”, enthused on his Facebook page Sergei Fursa, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman and regular commentator on the news. The visit of the three heads of state to the devastated city of Irpin “may have made them change their point of view on the war”, hopes in a column Andrey Smirnov, deputy editor of the Ukrainian weekly NV.
Continued mistrust
But Berlin’s hesitations over deliveries of heavy weapons and Emmanuel Macron’s declarations on the need to “not humiliate Russia” continue to weigh heavily in kyiv. Emmanuel Macron has indeed, in front of a small group of Ukrainian journalists, assured that “Ukraine is not ready for concessions, so the time to talk about peace and compromise has not come”. But, assures in the pages of NV Alyona Getmantchouk, director of the “New Europe” think tank and one of the most listened to Ukrainian voices on Western Europe, “Macron, Draghi and Scholz tend to think that the shortest path to peace is the one that sees Ukraine, lacking in arms and resources, launch a negotiation with the Russian Federation”.
Volodymyr Fessenko, influential Ukrainian political scientist, evokes in the same pages a « Minsk-3 » potentially under discussion between Kyiv and European capitals. The reference to the “Minsk-2” agreements of 2015 has become synonymous in Ukraine with an unacceptable concession and loss of control of territory. The visit of the French, German and Italian presidents to kyiv thus did not, for Ukrainian observers, signify the return of trust between Ukraine and the “Old Europe”.