Masoud Shakouri, in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said: France considers itself as the most powerful military power in Europe, which is equipped with nuclear weapons and has a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, but so far it has failed in providing a solution that can cease the conflict in Ukraine. This issue was highlighted during Macron’s recent visit to China, as Macron urged the Chinese president to help stop the war in Ukraine, acknowledging that only Beijing has the power to influence both sides of the war to end the conflict. Before his trip to China, Macron had tried several times to find a solution to end the war in Ukraine in his interactions with Putin. Still, France seems to have failed in this direction despite its potential political and military capabilities.

In response to a question about the role of France in the war in Ukraine, the expert on international affairs said: France has not been successful in gaining an achievement as was expected in the political and diplomatic field, and for this reason, it has turned to the field of military aid to Ukraine.

He added: France is training Ukrainian military forces in the war with Russia, despite Moscow’s warning against the non-interference of NATO member countries in the war in Ukraine, and so far, military equipment such as Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, MILAN anti-tank missiles, Caesar self-propelled artillery vehicles, and ammunition has already been put at the disposal of Ukraine. According to the Minister of Defense of France, that country delivered 18 Caesar cannons to Ukraine, and six more will be delivered to Kyiv. At the same time, Paris is considering the delivery of surface-to-surface missiles to Ukraine. These missiles are short-range Crotale anti-aircraft missiles that can intercept and hit missiles and planes at low altitudes.

Shakouri said: At the same time, France’s military aid and support to Ukraine has not been up to the expectations of France as a leading country in the European Union, because France, as the seventh military power in the world and the first in Europe, is the third arms exporter in the world. After the United States and Russia, as well as the second economic power of the European Union, it has so far only donated weapons worth 233 million euros to Ukraine. In comparison to the 40 billion euros of American aid to Ukraine, it is in 11^th place in terms of the value of dispatching arms shipments to Ukraine.

He added: Although nearly half of the total aid to Ukraine came from the United States, Ukraine’s European allies, namely Britain with 4 billion euros, Poland with 1.8 billion euros, and Germany with 1.2 billion euros, have a significant gap with France.