The Ukrainian and French leaders are united above all by brotherhood, but Emmanuel Macron is more than just an ally of Volodymyr Zelensky. He is his friend.
French director Bernard-Henri Lévy spoke about his understanding of the relationship between the leaders of the two countries after numerous meetings with them in an interview with Ukrinform.
“Undoubtedly, it is above all brotherhood. And it is the same determination, in my opinion. Macron is not just an ally of Zelensky. He is his friend. I know that General de Gaulle said: ‘Nations do not have friends.’ In this case, that is not true. Between these two men, and therefore between their peoples, there truly is a friendship,” said Lévy on the eve of the premiere of his new documentary about the war in Ukraine in Cannes.
According to him, he deliberately titled the film Our War (Notre Guerre) so that the French would feel that Ukrainians are also fighting on their behalf.
“You are our defense. You are our bastion against barbarism. You are fighting for your land, but also for ours. This is the message I repeat throughout the film. And this is what I tell my compatriots when they object: ‘By supplying weapons to Ukraine, we will be left bare and defenseless.’ I respond: ‘No! This is just redeployment! Repositioning! It is still our weaponry, but it is deployed on our real border, which is also Ukraine’s border,’” emphasized the well-known French philosopher and director.
In his opinion, although the war has completely changed in nature over the past three years — turning from a trench war into one of drones and cyberspace — Ukrainian fighters continue to demonstrate the same determination and heroism that they showed from the beginning.
As a reminder, Lévy has already made four films about the war in Ukraine. All of them serve as a kind of chronicle of key stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Why Ukraine (Pourquoi l’Ukraine) focused on the first months of the full-scale invasion. The second film, Slava Ukraini, is a documentary diary shot in the second half of 2022, showing events in Kharkiv, Bakhmut, and Kherson. Then came Glory to the Heroes (Aux héros), filmed in the summer of 2023, documenting the Ukrainian counteroffensive. In the film Our War (Notre Guerre), Lévy, alongside soldiers in a trench, watches a broadcast from the Oval Office of the White House; the film also includes his extensive interview with Azov Regiment commander Denys Prokopenko.
As Ukrinform previously reported, French intellectual, writer, and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy believes that many Europeans fail to understand that the war against Ukraine is being waged by Russia, not just Putin, because they find it difficult to grasp the nature of totalitarian regimes.
Source: Macron not just ally, but friend of Zelensky – director Bernard-Henri Lévy
