Ambassador Jacques Faure not recalled to Paris, contrary to reports
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry appears to have picked another fight with a European Union country last week, after its spokesman said France’s ambassador was being recalled to Paris, a rumor that the French Embassy in Kyiv quickly quashed.
This is the second public spat the Ukrainian government has entered into with a country in the 27-bloc nation bloc which it says it wants to join.
Earlier this year, the ministry rebuked the Czech Republic for offering political asylum to Bohdan Danylyshyn, a former economy minister who faced abuse-of-office charges in Ukraine. Kyiv later expelled two Czech military attaches, accusing them of spying.
The latest scandal began when Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Aug. 5 quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying French ambassador in Kyiv Jacques Faure was being recalled to Paris after he had “crossed the line of what is regarded as acceptable in Paris.”
The quote refers to Faure’s recent words about a criminal prosecution against Ukraine’s opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko that is widely seen to be a politically motivated attempt by the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych to sideline an opponent.
Faure was quoted on Tymoshenko’s party website as saying: “I did not want to comment on the trial, but I want to say that one is getting the impression in France that unfortunately the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko is very far from justice, but very close to politics.”
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
Oleh Voloshyn, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman, confirmed to journalists that Faure was being recalled, but said he didn’t know why.
But a source at the French Embassy told the Kyiv Post that they suspected the Foreign Ministry was behind the original story.
A second embassy source said that while Faure was set to leave Kyiv, the reason was that he was about to reach the end of his three-year period as ambassador. He arrived in Ukraine in August 2008.
“It’s just not true,” the source said, referring to the rumors about Faure being recalled. “Our ambassador should be leaving sooner or later because he has already been in Ukraine for three years, which is now the limit.”
I did not want to comment on the trial, but I want to say that one is getting the impression in France that unfortunately the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko is very far from justice, but very close to politics.
– French Ambassador to Ukraine Jacques Faure
“The ambassador’s position doesn’t contradict the position of the [French foreign] ministry,” the source added.
On Aug. 11, the French Foreign Ministry announced that it had summoned the Ukrainian ambassador in Paris to inform him of its “concern” at the detention of Tymoshenko “and more generally the progress of this process.”
The ministry added in its statement that France and other EU countries were closely following developments.
