Russia - Q&A (Sept.30, 2022)

Can you confirm that the Russian ambassador has been summoned, as has been done in other EU countries?

The ambassador of the Russian Federation was summoned today so that we could express to him our condemnation of the illegal annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as well as parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

These regions, like Crimea, constitute an integral part of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. France will never recognize this illegal annexation, nor the results of the sham referendums that preceded it. This announcement constitutes a serious, unacceptable violation of both Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the Charter of the United Nations.

As the French president has stated, France would like for Europe to adopt new sanctions against Russia and the individuals responsible for the Russian aggression in Ukraine and for these illegal annexations. By escalating its war of aggression to distract from its losses on the ground, Russia continues to sink deeper into military, diplomatic and political deadlock. Russia’s isolation grows more obvious by the day.

Neither this escalation nor Russia’s unilateral decision will cause the least change in the full commitment of France and its partners to supporting Ukraine in its legitimate and necessary fight to defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity for as long as is necessary.