The Kyiv Oblast State Administration has delivered five more passenger buses to Bucha as part of aid from its French partners—the Île-de-France region—according to the administration’s press service.
“Four buses had previously been added to the community’s fleet, and now five more have been added. The vehicles are adapted for people with disabilities and parents with strollers. The barrier-free design makes the buses more comfortable for all passengers,” the statement on the Telegram channel reads.
It is emphasized that this is an important step toward strengthening the local transportation system, as people’s daily mobility directly affects their quality of life.
In total, as part of the partnership with the Île-de-France region, Kyiv Oblast has already received 60 buses, which are being transferred to local communities.
The Public Union UkrSadVinProm has begun recruiting Ukrainian companies to participate in the international food industry exhibition SIAL Paris 2026, which will take place on 17–21 October at the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition centre in France.
Ukrainian producers of food products and beverages, fruit, vegetables, berries, nuts, processed products, and other representatives of the agri-food sector are invited to participate.
According to the association, participation in SIAL Paris gives Ukrainian companies an opportunity to present their products to international importers, distributors, and retail chains, hold negotiations on future contracts, and expand the geography of their exports.
A separate area of work for the Ukrainian delegation will be familiarisation with global food industry trends, including new product and packaging formats, changes in consumer preferences, and technological innovations.
UkrSadVinProm notes that companies that participated in SIAL Paris together with the association in previous years gained new business contacts, expanded the geography of their exports, and established international partnerships.
The official organiser of SIAL Paris confirms that the exhibition in 2026 will be held from 17 to 21 October. Around 295,000 professionals from 205 countries are expected to participate. The organisers also report around 5,000 key buyers with a combined purchasing power of more than EUR60 billion. Following the previous exhibition in 2024, 88% of exhibitors reported concluding contracts with partners from countries that were new to them.
Participation in such exhibitions remains one of the channels for Ukrainian food products to enter new markets, especially for companies planning to work not only with local importers but also with international retail chains, the HoReCa sector, and major distributors.
To obtain information about the participation terms, UkrSadVinProm invites companies to contact it at info@ukrsadvinprom.com.
The Public Union UkrSadVinProm is the Association of Horticulturists, Grape Growers and Winemakers of Ukraine. According to the organisation, it brings together around 200 producers of fruit, berries, nuts, and grapes, processing and winemaking enterprises, as well as scientific institutions. The association works to develop exports, introduce modern production, storage, and transportation technologies, and implement the GlobalG.A.P., ISO, and HACCP international standards. Products made by members of the association are exported to various markets around the world.
SIAL Paris is held once every two years and is one of the largest international B2B exhibitions in the food industry. Its participants include food and beverage producers, importers, distributors, retail chains, HoReCa representatives, buyers, technology companies, and start-ups. The 2026 exhibition will take place at Paris Nord Villepinte and will be open only to a professional audience.
On July 7, the Paris Court of Appeals reduced the sentence of Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally, in a case involving the misuse of European Parliament funds, effectively paving the way for her to run in the 2027 French presidential election.
The court upheld the guilty verdict in the case involving the misuse of EU funds but reduced the ban on holding elected office from five years to 45 months, 30 of which are suspended. The remaining 15 months are considered to have already been served, so Le Pen regains the right to run for office.
The court also sentenced her to three years in prison, two of which are suspended, and one year to be served under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. Additionally, according to Le Monde, she was fined 100,000 euros.
Following the court’s decision, Le Pen stated that she would run in the 2027 presidential election and appeal the verdict to the French Court of Cassation. According to Reuters and AP, the appeal could suspend the portion of the sentence involving electronic monitoring, allowing her to campaign without immediate restrictions of this kind.
The case concerns the use of European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016. Investigators alleged that money intended to pay for the work of European Parliament members’ assistants was used to fund party staff in France. Le Pen denies any wrongdoing and calls the case politically motivated.
The initial verdict, handed down in March 2025, threatened her participation in the presidential campaign, as the five-year ban on holding elected office effectively excluded her from the race. The National Rally had considered nominating Jordan Bardella as a contingency plan, but following the appeals court’s decision, Le Pen remains the party’s lead candidate.
The French presidential election is scheduled for 2027. Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron will not be able to run for another term, so the campaign is already being viewed as one of the most wide-open in recent years. Le Pen’s participation ensures that the National Rally retains its status as one of the key players in the upcoming race.
The Consulate General of Ukraine in Lyon will resume consular services for citizens starting July 9, following the completion of administrative procedures and technical preparations, the consulate announced on its official website.
Appointments will be scheduled via an online queue, and a separate appointment system is in place for vulnerable groups. The Consulate General urged Ukrainians to familiarize themselves in advance with the procedures for obtaining consular services and the document requirements.The consular district of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Lyon covers three regions of France: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and Corsica. Citizens residing in these regions will be able to register for temporary and permanent consular registration, register the acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship by birth, and register adopted children.
At the same time, other consular services will be provided without restrictions based on place of residence in France. The Consulate General also clarified that foreign passports previously issued by the Embassy of Ukraine in France can only be obtained at the Embassy of Ukraine in France.
The Consulate General also plans to provide mobile consular services in remote cities with the highest concentration of Ukrainians. The first such visits are scheduled for September in Nice and October in Marseille. The possibility of providing mobile services in other cities may also be considered depending on the community’s needs.
The opening of the Consulate General in Lyon is expected to reduce the workload on the Embassy of Ukraine in France and simplify access to consular services for Ukrainians living in the southeastern part of the country, particularly in the regions of Lyon, Grenoble, Marseille, Nice, and Corsica.
According to Eurostat, as of April 30, 2026, there were 4.37 million non-EU citizens in the EU under temporary protection who had fled Ukraine due to the war; more than 98.5% of them were Ukrainian citizens. At the same time, regarding France, Eurostat specifically notes that its data typically does not include minors, so official statistics on temporary protection do not fully reflect the total size of the Ukrainian community in the country.
According to media estimates, there may be approximately 80,000–100,000 Ukrainians in France who left after the start of the full-scale war, although some of them have already transitioned from temporary protection to other legal statuses or have left the country.
CONSULAR SERVICES, consulate general, FRANCE, Lyon, UKRAINIAN
Ukrainian clinics have signed more than 100 memorandums of understanding as part of the international medical partnership program launched under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska.
According to the Ministry of Health, 26 of these memorandums were signed with medical institutions in France and are being implemented with the support of Expertise France, the French interministerial agency for international cooperation and development.
For example, as part of the partnership, the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital is collaborating with the University Hospital of Lille, and the Chernihiv Regional Psychoneurological Hospital is collaborating with the University Hospital of Nîmes.
The Ministry of Health notes that in June 2024, the governments of Ukraine and France signed an intergovernmental grant agreement totaling 200 million euros, part of which is allocated to the healthcare sector and critical infrastructure: seven agreements in the healthcare sector have been signed, totaling 51 million euros. In addition, in 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ratified framework agreements between Ukraine and France on cooperation in the reconstruction and modernization of hospitals and in oncology diagnostics.
FRANCE, international partnership, MEDICINE, Ministry of Health
France and Italy have opposed the European Union’s initiative to draft trade agreements exclusively in English in order to speed up the negotiation process, citing constitutional constraints and risks to the multilingual nature of EU institutions, the Financial Times reports.
According to the publication, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič proposed drafting the legal and technical “text” of a new trade agreement with Indonesia entirely in English, with the final text subsequently translated into all 24 official EU languages.
Typically, the process of finalizing trade agreements takes up to two years, as all changes must be agreed upon and implemented in all EU languages. The proposed approach, according to Šefčovič, should reduce the preparation time to one year.
He notes that delays in the process of concluding agreements lead to economic losses and postpone the benefits of trade agreements.
At the same time, France and Italy have expressed objections, citing constitutional provisions and the principle of multilingualism. A French official stated: “This is a matter of the French Constitution. France cannot be bound by or assume obligations under a text that is not drafted in French.”
However, according to sources, there is broad support among EU member states for the idea of accelerating agreement-conclusion procedures.
The European Commission notes that the use of English during the legal and technical drafting phase is standard practice in international negotiations and does not imply a refusal to translate the final documents.
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