Ukraine

Political and economic relations

Political relations

Since 2014, bilateral relations between France and Ukraine have been increasingly dynamic, marked in particular by key economic projects. They were also dominated by France’s diplomatic commitment within the Normandy Format for the resolution of the crisis in Eastern Ukraine. In early 2022, France and Ukraine celebrated the 30^th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

Economic relations

Trade between France and Ukraine reached a total of €2.1 billion in 2021, a considerable increase compared to 2020 (€1.6 billion). France’s trade surplus decreased sharply from 2020 to €265 million in 2021 (compared to €380 million in 2018). France is Ukraine’s 10^th largest supplier and held a market share of 2.46% in 2021, down from 2.7% in 2020, but up compared to its pre-crisis level (2.2% in 2013). France is Ukraine’s fourth-largest supplier in the European Union, behind Germany (leading supplier, 8.7% market share) and Poland (7%). France is currently the sixth-largest foreign and European investor in Ukraine, with 2% of foreign direct investment stock, behind the Netherlands (18.8%), Switzerland (6.4%), the United Kingdom (5.1%) and Austria (3.2%). Before the war began, there were nearly 160 French companies in Ukraine employing 30,000 people, making France the leading international employer in Ukraine (source: OECD).

Bilateral relations 

Updated: 3 April 2026 

France established diplomatic relations with Ukraine very quickly after its independence, on 24 January 1992. French-Ukrainian relations gained new impetus following the “Revolution of Dignity” in 2014. France was involved alongside Germany within the Normandy Format in efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

French presence

Consulate-General of France: Kyiv.
French community in Ukraine: approximately 1,700 people before 24 February 2022.

Visits

Bilateral contacts have grown more frequent since 2014, including six official visits to Paris by the Ukrainian President, most recently on 16 April 2021, and one visit by the French President to Kyiv on 8 February 2022, two visits by the French Foreign Minister to Ukraine (the latest on 24 August 2021, for the 30^th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence), and several visits by other ministers and members of parliament, including the visit of the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada to Paris in June 2018.

The President of the Republic welcomed former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Paris in between the two rounds of the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. The Minister of State for European Affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, attended the inauguration of President Zelenskyy on 20 May 2019. The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, travelled to Kyiv on 30 May 2019 with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, for a first joint visit after President Zelenskyy’s election. President Zelenskyy chose France for his first foreign bilateral visit on 17 June 2019.

In 2021, high-level bilateral visits resumed after a lull due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attesting to the vitality of the two countries’ bilateral relationship. The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, visited Paris on 26 February 2021. President Zelenskyy was received by the President of the Republic at the Élysée Palace on 16 April 2021. The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, visited Paris on 12-13 July. The Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, travelled to Kyiv on 13 May and met with the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, Arsen Avakov. The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, made a visit to Kyiv on 24 August 2021 for the 30^th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.
The President of the Republic visited Kyiv for the first time on 8 February 2022.

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

France’s cultural cooperation with Ukraine is focused on the mobility of students and young researchers towards France. France receives 2,000 Ukrainian students every year. France’s work also aims to promote the French language and culture, particularly to young Ukrainians. The 10 Alliance Française branches (8 of which are currently active, due to the closure of those in Luhansk and Donetsk) are a vibrant relay for the embassy’s cultural activities outside the capital. They counted more than 3,000 students before the war. Lycée Français Anne de Kyiv, a French international school under contract with the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE), had 504 pupils enrolled in February 2022, after which it had 127 pupils attending in person. It is currently impossible to say when the school will be able to begin operating normally again. Each year, the Printemps Français (“French Spring”) arts festival offers around a hundred cultural events in different Ukrainian cities held over a month. Since the beginning of the war, French primary, secondary and higher education establishments have considerably aided the enrolment of Ukrainian students (10,230 children enrolled in April 2022).

Other cooperation

Decentralized cooperation: some 40 twinning programmes are in place between local government bodies in both countries. Cités Unies France created a solidarity fund for Ukraine to support the reconstruction and resilience of its regions.

France has supported reform and modernization efforts in Ukraine by contributing its experience and its expertise in European funding in the fields of anti-corruption, public financial management, decentralization, public administration reform and healthcare. The agency Expertise France is responsible for the implementation of the European anti-corruption project PRAVO (€15 million).

Relations with the European Union

A priority partner of the EU as part of the Eastern Partnership launched in 2009, Ukraine has made building closer ties with the EU a priority of its foreign policy and signed an Association Agreement on 16 November 2014. A visa waiver for Ukrainian citizens entered into force in 2017, and the EU set up macro-financial assistance programmes, providing aid conditional on the adoption of structural reforms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU granted €190 million in financial assistance to help Ukraine meet its immediate needs. It also increased its support for Ukraine’s economic and financial resilience through a €1.2 billion emergency macro-financial assistance package.

Efforts to build closer relations with the EU have accelerated since the beginning of the war. Ukraine applied for accession to the EU on 28 February 2022 and submitted the questionnaire for EU membership on 18 April. Europe has shown its solidarity with Ukraine through financial, humanitarian and military assistance, as well as the adoption of six packages of sanctions against Russia.

The EU stepped up its support for Ukraine’s economic and financial resilience through a €1.2 billion emergency macro-financial assistance package and a €120 million budget support grant. €130 million was allocated to Ukraine to implement humanitarian assistance programmes. This funding was part of the billion-euro assistance package promised by the Commission at the “Stand up for Ukraine” conference in March 2022. The EU also delivered 13,000 tons of in-kind aid to Ukraine.

On 4 March 2022, the EU activated the Temporary Protection Directive to offer quick and effective assistance to people fleeing the war in Ukraine. Work is under way to unify temporary protection schemes among Member States.

The EU provided €1.575 billion to finance military support for Ukraine via the European Peace Facility.

Additional information 

Government information page on Ukraine (in French)

Ministry for the Armed Forces page on the war in Ukraine (in French)

European Council and Council of the European Union page on Ukraine