Macron aims to bolster Europe's defenses through Ukraine ties, EU arms output — journalist

Alla Lazareva, deputy editor-in-chief of Ukrainian Week magazine (France), expressed this opinion in the The World and Us program with Yevhen Mahda.

"First and foremost, what Macron is striving for is to boost Europe's defense capabilities through cooperation with Ukraine, by testing new weapons in Ukraine, and by manufacturing them within EU countries. For example, the French already have joint drone production with Ukraine, and there are also German partnerships. So, it primarily concerns the defense industry," she noted.

At the same time, Alla Lazareva pointed out that Europeans are acting rather slowly. France is trying to provide logistics, coordination, and persuade EU leaders to allocate credit lines.

"But it’s clear that things in such areas don’t move quickly—certainly not as quickly as we need, because we’re already at war. And the Europeans are moving rather slowly. So what France is trying to do is ensure logistics, coordination, and diplomatically convince EU leaders of the need to open credit lines. That’s the approach for now. So far, it's mostly about negotiations and a few joint arms production projects. That’s the current state of things," added the deputy editor-in-chief of Ukrainian Week magazine.

• On July 18, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, after which he announced that France is ready to train additional pilots for Mirage fighter jets.