French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot arrived in Kiev on Saturday morning as planned, the French embassy in Ukraine has confirmed, Le Parisien has said.

This is his first visit to Ukraine.

“Today I am traveling to Ukraine. I support, again and again, Ukraine's resistance against Russian aggression,” the minister wrote in his microblog on the social network X on Friday evening.

He told France Inter radio on Friday that he was traveling to Ukraine “to bring France's voice, to remind people that France is not turning its back on any crisis.”

“To say that what is at stake in Ukraine is the security of our continent, including food and energy security,” he said.