"We thought war had disappeared from Europe," she said.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian wrote on Twitter that "we won't forget the soldiers from across the Soviet Union, including Ukrainians and Russians, who contributed to the victory" over Nazi Germany.
He added that "we reject all forms of instrumentalisation and manipulation of the memory of those who gave their lives".
The Kremlin claims it is engaged in a "special military operation" aimed at "de-Nazifying" Ukraine, and has banned using the word "war" to describe the fighting in Russian media and social networks.
Kyiv and Western governments accuse Russia of war crimes, with Zelensky likening the invasion to Nazi Germany's war of aggression across Europe in a video published to social media on Sunday.
