Emmanuel Macron, France's president, left, greets Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine's president, ahead of a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on May 14, 2023. (Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
French President Emmanuel Macron on Jan. 16 said he will sign a bilateral military agreement next month while in Kyiv, Politico reported.
Paris will "continue to help Ukraine to hold the front line and protect its skies," he said.
His visit comes at a time when political turbulence in the U.S. has delayed major assistance packages for Ukraine.
Some 40 SCALP long-range missiles and other ordinance are expected to be delivered.
Last week British PM Rishi Sunak pledged nearly $3 billion and signed a bilateral security framework with Kyiv.
Macron also urged EU leaders to reach a consensus to finalize 50 billion euro of desperately needed aid.
Lance Luo (Li P. Luo) is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. Previously, he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Hromadske Television in Kyiv. He also spent three years in finance and strategy consulting. Mr. Luo graduated from the University of Southern California and serves as an arbitrator at FINRA.
Russia launched 11 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 149 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Air Force said. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 116 drones.
The Hungarian government said on Feb. 8 that it is providing consular protection to its citizen detained by Ukraine over allegedly trying to help five Ukrainian draft-age men illegally cross the border.
Ukrainian director and journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s film "2,000 Meters to Andriivka" received the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary at the 2026 Directors Guild of America award ceremony on Feb. 7.
“We don’t know what happened with that particular general — maybe it was their own internal Russian infighting,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
Ukraine’s energy system remains under severe strain, and nuclear plants are still partially discharged as of Feb. 8 following Russia's mass attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight on Feb. 7.
In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent’s Anna Belokur examines SpaceX’s move to curb Russia’s illegal use of Starlink satellite internet — a technology that has been vital to Ukraine’s defense since 2022.
"An agent of our movement set fire to a hardware module at the base of a communication tower. As a result of the destruction of the ground equipment, all the infrastructure installed on the mast was completely de-energized and put out of action," the Atesh partisan group announced.
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