France offering intelligence to Ukraine amid Washington suspension

Paris, France - France is offering intelligence to Ukraine, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Thursday, a day after Washington said it was suspending intelligence sharing with Kyiv, an effort to step up pressure on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The United States is pushing for Zelenskiy to cooperate with President Donald Trump's bid to convene peace talks with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

"We have intelligence resources that we use to help the Ukrainians," Lecornu told radio station France Inter.

"It has been suspended since yesterday afternoon," he added, referring to US intelligence-sharing with Ukraine. "I think for our British friends who are in an intelligence community with the United States, it is more complicated."

Lecornu also said France's nuclear weapons stockpile, developed in the early days of the Cold War and designed to be independent from the then-dominant powers Washington and Moscow, was sufficient.

France was open to discussing extending the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners in the face of Europe's threat from Russia, President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.

He was speaking on the eve of a summit of European leaders that is expected to centre on issues of Ukraine and defense.

(Reporting by John Irish; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Alison Williams and Clarence Fernandez)