PARIS — The Ukrainian government clapped back at French presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Monday after the far-left leader said a vote could settle territorial disputes.
“‘Referendums’ under occupation are a tool of annexation, not an expression of the people’s will. No civilised, democratic country would ever accept this for its own borders, so it should not be proposed to Ukrainians,” the foreign ministry’s spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi posted on X. He added that Ukraine previously voted in 1991, and Russia is now looking to change borders with a war.
The backlash came after Mélenchon said at a France Unbowed political rally Saturday that, if in power, he would not back territorial concessions in the war-torn country “without asking the people affected whether they agree to be on one side of the border or the other.”
“The people of Donbas … have the right to decide whether they want to be Ukrainian or Russian,” he argued, referring to a region in eastern Ukraine that is the central territorial dispute of the war with Russia.
It’s not the first time Ukrainian top officials have spatted with France’s presidential front-runners in recent weeks: Last month, the war-torn country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also directly replied to far-right candidate Marine Le Pen’s pledge to cut financial aid to Kyiv.
France’s staunch support for Ukraine could be dramatically overturned if Mélenchon or Le Pen wins next year in a high-stakes presidential election to replace Emmanuel Macron. According to polls, the two politicians could face off in the second round.
Like Le Pen, Mélenchon is often accused by political opponents of being soft on Moscow — accusations that are intensifying as the presidential campaign heats up.
After Saturday’s political rally, centrist Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the far-left leader as a “Kremlin spokesperson.” Mélenchon dismissed the accusations.
Muriel Domenach, a former French NATO ambassador now working on the campaign for center-left candidate Raphaël Glucksmann, also slammed France Unbowed’s recently released presidential platform that calls for leaving NATO and mentions Ukraine only briefly. France Unbowed lawmaker Bastien Lachaud replied, saying his party has always backed aid to Kyiv until a peace agreement is reached.
“We have made it clear from the outset of the conflict that, as long as these negotiations remain unresolved, aid to Ukraine must continue without reservation,” he said.