Sybiha: We had long tête-à-tête with French FM on implementation of Victory Plan

This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha at a joint press conference with the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noel Barrot in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy noted that the new French Foreign Minister made one of his first visits after his appointment to Ukraine.

Sybiha thanked France for its comprehensive support of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale aggression and for not only supporting Ukraine's Victory Plan, but also effectively promoting and advocating for it.

“We had a long tête-à-tête with Mr. Foreign Minister, where we exchanged views on additional steps for the practical implementation of President Zelensky's Victory Plan. ... In fact, the further implementation, content, and realization of the Victory Plan was one of the main issues [of the talks],” Sybiha said.

He said that his French counterpart had informed him of the results of yesterday's meeting in Berlin in the format of the Quartet of the leaders of the United States, France, Britain and Germany.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy also noted that he had informed the French Foreign Minister about the challenges facing Ukraine's energy sector on the eve of winter.

“We agreed on cooperation and concrete steps to increase our resilience,” the minister said.

“France always draws attention to human rights violations, which it guarantees. And we need to prevent the world from moving towards chaos. Therefore, we must make efforts to ensure that the Victory Plan proposed by Mr. Zelensky involves as many countries as possible in its implementation,” said Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France.

Barrot noted that it is necessary to support Ukraine at every stage so that it can resist the aggressor, and added that it is Ukraine's right to decide when to start peace talks.

The Foreign Minister also assured that despite all the difficulties, Ukraine is and will remain a priority for France.

During the talks, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and France also discussed attracting as many participants as possible to the ministerial conference on October 30-31 in Canada, which will be dedicated to point 4 of the Peace Formula - the release of all prisoners and deportees during Russia's war against Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported, the new French Minister for European and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot arrived in Kyiv on Saturday, October 19.