Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has stated it had nothing to do with rumors about the alleged recall of French Ambassador to Ukraine Jacques Faure due to his support for former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko.
"The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine is surprised by such an interpretation of the situation. We’ve stated numerous times that we do not know the reasons for which the French president decided to recall the [French] ambassador from Ukraine," Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Information Policy Department Oleh Voloshyn told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday, commenting on the situation.
According to him, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry highly appreciates the contribution Faure made to the development of relations between the states.
"During all of his years of work in Kyiv he was a real friend to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. And we really hope that his successor would also actively contribute to strengthening the partnership between Kyiv and Paris," Voloshyn added.
As reported, in an interview with Ukrainsky Tyzhden Magazine, Faure said that the rumors of his recall from Kyiv were started by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
In early August there appeared a report on Faure’s recall from the position of the ambassador of France to Ukraine, and among the possible reasons behind the decision to recall the ambassador from Ukraine was the dissatisfaction in Paris with the fact that Faure recently made public comments on the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed that France had recalled its current ambassador Jacques Faure from Ukraine, but did not mention the reason for the decision.
However, the Foreign Ministry of France refuted the reports about the withdrawal of the country’s ambassador from Ukraine and the embassy said that the French ambassador had completed his three-year mission.
