President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said tonight that "Russia's advance has stopped" and that the situation on the front is "much better", and he also assessed that "as long as Ukraine holds on, the French army can remain on French territory".
"I can give you the latest information: the situation is much better than in the last three months," he told French television channel BFMTV and daily Le Monde, contradicting numerous assessments of Russian military advances in Ukraine.
According to him, that progress has been stopped.
"Today, our command, our soldiers stopped him," he said, according to a translation from BFMTV television, and added: "Your children will not die in Ukraine," assuring that sending foreign troops to his country is not necessary at the moment.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on February 26 that sending troops to Ukraine in the future should not be "ruled out", in the name of "strategic ambiguity".
His statement caused a stormy controversy in Europe.
Zelensky, however, advocated sending "technical personnel" for "joint production" of French Caesar guns or German Leopard tanks, as well as for "training."
"The fact that (Macron) said that we cannot rule anything out, I think (...) it is connected with Putin, because as long as Ukraine holds on, the French army can stay on the territory of France. But if Putin attacks another NATO country , then the NATO countries would have to decide whether, how, and in what quantity they should send the army," said Zelenski.
Macron "just wants (...) Ukraine not to be alone", and "he wanted to have some kind of union around Ukraine, and I don't see any risk in that", said the leader of the Ukrainian state.
According to him, "more than 1.000 kilometers" of defensive fortifications have been built or are being built along the front in Ukraine, he said.
"You should know that the construction of fortifications is continuous; we are not talking about kilometers or hundreds of kilometers, but more than 1.000 kilometers of construction. So, it is a very complex task," assured Zelenski, citing "three lines of defense" that "have already been built " against Russian forces in the east, south and north of Ukraine.
In his daily video speech, Zelenski mentioned the figure of "2.000 kilometers of work on strengthening existing fortifications and creating new ones".
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