kyiv/Paris, Apr 15 (EFE).- The French Embassy in Ukraine returned to kyiv this Friday after having been displaced in the city of Lviv (west) since last February 28 due to the intensification of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital, confirmed an EFE team.
“It is a moment of satisfaction and joy because it means that we are in a position to reopen the Embassy,” the ambassador, Étienne de Poncins, told the BFMTV channel.
The raising of the French tricolor flag served to symbolize the return of the diplomatic legation to kyiv.
© Provided by Agencia EFE
It has been closed for 46 days and so far only a “hard core” has returned around the ambassador, a dozen collaborators plus members of the security team.
This reopening – stressed De Poncins – “also means that kyiv has not been conquered and that the Ukrainians have known how to defend themselves against aggression.”
The French government had communicated to kyiv its decision to return this Thursday, after the disagreement between the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, and the French, Emmanuel Macron, due to the latter’s refusal to describe the massacres committed against civilians by the army as genocide. Russian, who has preferred to speak of “war crimes”.
(c) EFE Agency