How a cautious Macron became a strong supporter of Ukraine
When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in February 2022, France’s initial reaction caused significant disappointment in Kyiv.
French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on maintaining open diplomatic ties with Vladimir Putin, a position seen by many Ukrainians as naïve at best and dangerously compliant at worst.
Yet, three years after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, France is now among Ukraine’s strongest European advocates, pushing actively for Kyiv’s NATO membership and providing critical military aid.
Read more about how Paris’s stance has evolved during the full-scale war in the article by Charlotte Guillou-Clerc, a Ukrainska Pravda intern (France): From talks with Putin to weapons: How France rethought its Ukraine policy.
At the start of Russia’s invasion, Macron’s strategy was clear but polemical: dialogue over confrontation.
The turning point was Macron’s June 2022 visit to Kyiv and the devastated town of Irpin, alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
After this visit, Macron backed Ukraine’s rapid EU integration, stating that Ukraine deserves to receive "immediate EU candidate status".
Following this shift in tone, France’s military assistance rapidly expanded.
The decisive moment came at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July 2023. There, Macron firmly positioned France alongside Poland and Eastern Europe, asserting clearly: "Vilnius must send a clear message to Ukraine and Ukrainians. I favour stronger, concrete [and] very clear security guarantees" (NATO, July 2023).
He declared that "the path for Ukraine to join NATO is open," marking a profound break with decades of prudent French diplomacy.
Yet Macron’s foreign policy shift coincided with concerning political instability in France, marked by large-scale protests and a crisis over pension reforms.
Critics suggested Macron’s assertive international stance might have partly served to compensate for his weakened domestic authority.
Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024 sent shockwaves through European capitals, but few reacted more forcefully than Emmanuel Macron. He called the result an "electroshock," and urged Europe to stop relying on Washington’s goodwill: "We must also develop a fully integrated European defence, industrial and technological base," he warned.
French unions protested the reallocation of national funds from welfare to military spending. Meanwhile, populist figures on both the far right and left accused the President of "militarising the Republic."
The recent NATO summit in The Hague exposed the limits of European unity, and of French influence.
But Trump’s America had other plans. His administration publicly stated that a full Ukrainian victory was "unrealistic" and dismissed NATO membership as a possible condition in peace talks.
Macron responded sharply: "Ukraine’s place is in NATO and in the EU. That is non-negotiable."
Yet Paris found itself isolated on key issues. Slovakia and Hungary opposed a precise wording on possible Ukrainian NATO accession in the Summit final declaration. Even Berlin urged for caution. The summit’s final declaration offered words of support but no timeline for Ukraine.
Then, on 1 July 2025, Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone for the first time since the early months of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The conversation, initiated by the French president, lasted over two hours and marked the end of a three-year diplomatic freeze between Paris and Moscow.
The timing of the call inevitably raised questions, but French officials were quick to dismiss any suggestion of a policy shift.
Unlike the dialogue of 2022, this exchange took place in a radically different context, France is now a key supplier of weapons to Kyiv, a vocal supporter of its NATO accession, and deeply involved in reconstruction initiatives.
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19 of July 2025
