PARIS—France’s Prime Minister has strongly condemned the recent U.S. decision to halt military support to Ukraine, labeling the move as “unbearable”, equating it to forsaking the Ukrainian people and opening the door for a potential Russian triumph.
Prime Minister François Bayrou expressed this critical view to French senators, marking his second consecutive day of criticism towards the U.S. administration’s strategy under President Donald Trump.
“The concept of ‘suspension’ misleads no one,” Bayrou stated, emphasizing that halting assistance during a conflict signals a desertion of the victimized nation and implies passive acquiescence or hope for the aggressor’s success. Bayrou firmly stated, “It’s obviously unbearable.”
Aligning closely with President Emmanuel Macron, Bayrou also criticized the immense pressure from the U.S. to rush Ukraine into negotiating peace. He highlighted the necessity for Ukraine to continue its struggle for survival.
“If Russia halts its attacks, the war ceases. If Ukraine stops fighting, it ceases to exist,” Bayrou noted. Although the Trump administration publicized the aid suspension on Monday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported in a subsequent address that his nation had not been directly informed of the aid cessation and expressed willingness to engage with Trump to secure enduring peace.
In response, Macron conversed by phone with both Trump and Zelenskyy, reiterating France’s commitment to collaborating with all parties to secure sustainable peace in Ukraine, though specific details of his discussions with Trump were not disclosed.
Since his appointment in December, Bayrou has become a prominent critic of the sudden reversal in Washington’s stance on Ukraine, a policy change that Trump established following a contentious public confrontation with Zelenskyy alongside U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
Addressing the French lower parliamentary house on Monday, Bayrou condemned the Oval Office’s public chastisement of Zelenskyy as an astonishing display of “brutality” intended to demean Ukraine’s leader and force him into alignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Further discussing the situation with lawmakers on Tuesday, Bayrou cautioned that discontinuing U.S. military aid could substantially influence Ukraine both on the battlefield and beyond, affecting essential resources such as munitions, intelligence, communication assistance, and Ukrainian morale.
“The Ukrainians feel dreadfully abandoned and isolated,” Bayrou asserted.
In a separate development, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu shared a video depicting what he termed as “hazardous behavior” by a Russian Su-35 fighter jet. This aircraft reportedly buzzed a French Reaper drone performing surveillance in international skies over the eastern Mediterranean on Sunday.
“Three successive close encounters, which posed a risk to the drone’s control, revealed attempts to impede free air movement in shared zones,” the defense minister shared online, denouncing the incident as a calculated, unprofessional, and hostile act that is intolerable.
