OREANDA-NEWS. The official representative of the French government, Gabriel Attal, said following the meeting of the Council of Ministers that Paris is not going to resort to military tools to help Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports.

“We have already clearly spoken about the possible invasion of Ukraine and our assistance, and I want to say that the answer is no,” Attal answered the question about protecting Ukraine by military means.

According to him, Paris will not interrupt the dialogue with Moscow against the background of the recognition of the DPR and LPR by the Russian side.

“Over the past few days, we have spent a real diplomatic marathon to avoid escalation in Ukraine, and we do not regret it. We went all the way with this. And we will continue the dialogue in order to build a new security order in Europe,” said the representative of the French Cabinet.

Earlier, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that he and his colleagues from EU countries are considering the possibility of tightening sanctions against Russia.

"European finance ministers are currently working on a package of tougher sanctions against the Russian economy," he said.

He added that the ministers of finance of the EU countries will hold additional meetings on this issue on February 25 and 26.