French prime minister again lashes out at US over Ukraine, says pause in
aid is 'unbearable'
[March 05, 2025]
By JOHN LEICESTER
PARIS (AP) — France’s prime minister decried the U.S. pause on providing
military aid to Ukraine as “unbearable” on Tuesday, describing it as
tantamount to abandoning Ukrainians and allowing for a possible victory
by Russia.
“The word ‘suspension’ fools no one,” Prime Minister François Bayrou
said, addressing French senators and mounting what was his second sharp
criticism of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump in as
many days.
“The suspension in war of assistance to an aggressed country signifies
that the aggressed country is being abandoned and that one accepts — or
hopes — that its aggressor wins,” he said.
“It’s obviously unbearable,” Bayrou said.
The French premier, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, also
argued against strong pressure that the White House is exerting on
Ukraine to quickly negotiate an end to the fighting. Bayrou said that
Ukraine needs to keep fighting for its very survival.
“If Russia stops fighting, the war stops. If Ukraine stops fighting,
Ukraine disappears," Bayrou said.
Though the Trump administration announced the suspension in aid Monday,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated later during his
nightly address that his country had not received direct notification of
the pause. He also said he stands ready to work with Trump on obtaining
a lasting peace.
Macron, meanwhile, spoke by phone successively with Trump and Zelenskyy
and reiterated "France's determination to work with all the parties to
achieve a solid and lasting peace in Ukraine,” his office said, without
giving details of the discussion with Trump.
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Macron's prime minister, appointed in December, has become one of
the sharpest French critics of the abrupt U-turn in Washington's
policy on Ukraine that Trump has executed since he and U.S. Vice
President JD Vance publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy in an explosive meeting last week.
In an address on Monday to France's lower house of parliament, the
prime minister decried the Oval Office thrashing of Zelenskyy as a
“staggering” show of “brutality” that aimed to humiliate Ukraine’s
leader and bend him to the will of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to lawmakers again on Tuesday, Bayrou argued that the U.S.
suspension of military aid could have repercussions both on and off
the battlefields for Ukraine, impacting not only supplies of
munitions, intelligence and communications and other military
assistance, but also Ukrainian morale.
“The Ukrainians feel terribly abandoned and terribly alone,” he
said.
Separately, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu posted a video
of what he described as "dangerous behavior" by a Russian Su-35
fighter jet that he said buzzed a French Reaper drone that was
conducting a surveillance mission in international airspace over the
eastern Mediterranean on Sunday.
"Three successive close passes, which could have led to the loss of
control of the drone, demonstrated an intent to restrict free air
circulation in shared spaces," the defense minister posted on X.
“This was a deliberate, unprofessional, and aggressive action that
is unacceptable.”
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AP journalist Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.
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