“(Macron) confirmed that arms shipments from France will continue and gain in intensity in the days and weeks to come,” a statement by the Elysee presidential office said after Macron spoke to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy by telephone.

France last week supplied 13 vehicles for emergency services and has provided 800 tonnes of humanitarian aid since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

The Elysee statement said both presidents spoke of security guarantees that France could provide for Ukraine as part of an international settlement that would respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The two leaders also discussed ways of enabling Ukraine to resume blocked grain exports “on which a large part of the world depends”.

Macron also said Ukraine’s European Union application submitted in the past few weeks, would be examined by EU members at a summit in June, the statement added.

And he repeated an idea he raised last week about creating a new “political community” outside the EU to make it easier to integrate Ukraine.

Zelenskiy has pointed to the speed with which Ukraine submitted its EU application and called for rapid agreement on granting membership – normally a process conducted over several years.

In presenting his proposal last week, Macron dampened hopes for the ex-Soviet state to secure membership quickly, saying the process would take decades.

Russia this week opposed Ukraine’s bid to join the EU, saying it would amount to the same thing as applying for NATO membership.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Edmund Blair, Ron Popeski and Sandra Maler)