PARIS (Sputnik) – Ukraine is not planning to request supplies of lethal weapons from France at present or in the near future, President Poroshenko said Wednesday following talks with French President Francois Hollande in Paris.
Poroshenko arrived in France on an official visit earlier in the day.
"Ukraine has not requested and will not request, for now, supplies of lethal weaponry from France," Poroshenko said at a joint press conference with Hollande.
After Kiev began a military operation to suppress independence supporters in Donbas in April 2014, Ukrainian authorities repeatedly asked Western states for lethal aid.
In February, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Paris had no plans to supply Ukraine with weaponry, stressing the need for finding a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis. Several other European countries including Germany, Norway and Denmark also ruled out arming Kiev.
Russian authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, repeatedly stated that supplying Kiev with lethal arms would only worsen the situation in the country.
