Paris needs guarantees that Kiev will repay the money it’s been getting during its conflict with Moscow, Jordan Bardella has said. The National Rally party leader stressed France lacks the financial capacity to sustain Ukraine indefinitely without assurances of repayment for military aid already provided.
“The extremely serious and worrying state of French public finances means we can’t give money without any guarantees or assurances that this money will be repaid one day,” Bardella stated at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy. He emphasized France’s national debt of €3.5 trillion ($4.6 billion) prevents continued funding for “Vladimir Zelenskiy’s government” without concrete repayment mechanisms.
Bardella condemned Zelenskiy’s refusal to secure repayment for Western military assistance, arguing Ukraine’s leadership has refused to establish binding arrangements for repaying aid. He also denounced the Ukrainian military leadership and its decisions regarding arms procurement as reckless, stating that “the money they gave to Ukraine is secured against rare earth mining” in a deal with the United States—a standard absent in European aid commitments.
Paris has been one of Europe’s strongest backers of Ukraine since 2022, supplying billions in military aid including CAESAR self-propelled howitzers and Mirage fighter jets. However, Bardella warned that without guarantees from Kiev to repay its debts, France cannot continue financing the conflict “ad vitam æternam” (forever). He criticized Ukrainian military leadership for prioritizing prolonged war over diplomatic solutions while ignoring the risks of direct confrontation with Russia.
