PARIS: France announced on Tuesday three agreements with Ukraine for the supply of rails, bridges, and seeds, during a conference bringing together the leaders of the two states at the French Ministry of the Economy.
These goods provided by French or German companies will be financed by payment facilities found by Paris, according to the Ministry of the Economy.
This is a separate aid from the donations announced earlier in the day to help Ukraine get through the winter.
In detail, Paris will allow Ukraine to have 20,000 tonnes of rail produced in France by the German company Saarstahl, anticipating the repair of more than 150 km of Ukrainian railways. This operation will be made possible by “financing on a concessional loan from the Treasury of 37.6 million euros”, said the Ministry of the Economy in a press release.
A second agreement between the two countries will involve the supply of around 25 bridge kits by the French company Matière to the Ukrainian government road agency UkrAvtodor. “France will offer funding,” the ministry said without providing further details.
The third contract intends to deliver more than 20 million euros of seeds by three French exporting companies, MAS Seeds, Lideas Seeds, and RAGT. For this project, “the State grants its cover to the risk”, indicated France.
The objective of these three projects is “not to leave an inch of ground for destruction”, affirmed French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, during a bilateral conference in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal, and after a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron at Bercy and by Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky by videoconference.
Regarding the digital sector, France made no announcements on Tuesday but committed to “rapid and concrete results” in the fields of cybersecurity and the financing of start-ups. Ecole 42 and the Station F incubator are particularly involved in this project.
France has also signed two agreements with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) providing for “the granting of 100 million euros in guarantees for support to Ukrainian critical infrastructure”, said Bercy.
These guarantees will make it possible to grant 200 million euros in emergency cash to two operators, the public energy company Naftogaz in order to buy gas for the winter, and the national railway company (UZ).
The EBRD will also grant a loan of 300 million euros to the manager of the electricity networks UkrEnergo in order to “repair damaged equipment”.