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Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to plead for support from French deputies

By Paul Myers - RFI
Ukraine Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to plead for support from French deputies
MAR 23, 2022 LISTEN

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky will address French deputies at the Assemblée nationale on Wednesday as part of his international diplomatic effort to maintain support for his country.

Zelensky has spoken to the US Congress as well as German MPs to plead for assistance following the decision of the Russian president Vladimir Putin to send his country's forces into Ukraine.

He will speak to deputies via a video link from his office in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

It is understood Zelensky will ask French MPs to argue Ukraine's case for swift integration into the European Union.

Idea
The proposal was placed on the back burner two weeks ago during a meeting of European heads of state in Versailles, just to the south of Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, who hosted the meeting, said he wanted to send a strong signal to Ukraine and to the Ukrainians of solidarity.

But he added: "We must be vigilant. I do believe it is possible to open an accession procedure with a country at war."

The Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte added: "There is no fast-track procedure to become a member of the EU."

Address
During his address, which will be translated simultaneously from Ukrainian, It is believed Zelensky will also allude to France's celebrated resistance to the Nazi occupation during the second world war between 1939 and 1945.

Zelensky's move to woo French politicians comes as Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said an agreement had been reached to try to evacuate civilians trapped in Ukrainian towns and cities through nine “humanitarian corridors”.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry announced that the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will hold talks with Peter Maurer, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“The agenda of the meeting envisages discussion of the key areas of the ICRC's work in the field of humanitarian response,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

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