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France to provide armoured vehicles, missiles to Ukraine

France's defence minister said Paris would deliver "hundreds" of armoured personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles as part a new aid package to Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders.

Published: 31 March 2024 15:29 CEST

France to provide armoured vehicles, missiles to Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is welcomed by French Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu (C-R). Photo: Bertrand GUAY/AFP.

“To hold such as extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs for example our VAB vehicles: it’s absolutely essential for troop mobility,” Sebastien Lecornu told La Tribune newspaper in an interview published late Saturday.

France is currently phasing out its VAB fleet — some of them more than 40 years old — with new Griffon armoured vehicles, but Lecornu said the older models were “still operational”.

“We’re talking about hundreds of them for 2024 and early 2025,” he said.

Paris will also supply more Aster 30 anti-aircraft missiles for SAMP/T launchers, similar to the US-supplied Patriot air defence systems.

“We are also developing remotely operated munitions in a very short timeframe, to deliver them to Ukraine starting this summer,” Lecornu added.

The French government is pushing defence companies to ramp up production to meet the needs of its own army and to ensure continued support to Ukraine after more than two years of war with Russia.

Kyiv has warned its stocks of munitions are running low, urging in particular Washington to end a political standoff that has frozen a new $60 billion aid package.

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Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs credible defence

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said.

“It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

“Over the next decade… the risk is immense of (Europe) being weakened or even relegated,” he added, also pointing to the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Macron returned to the same themes of a speech he gave in September 2017 months after taking office at the same location – the Sorbonne University in Paris – but in a context that seven years on has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron champions the concept of European strategic autonomy in economy and defence, arguing that Europe needs to face crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without relying on the US.

He urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Russia for energy and Washington for security.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the United States.

He said he would ask European partners for proposals in the next months and added that Europe also needed its own capacity in cyberdefence and cybersecurity.

Macron said preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment and backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

Macron also called for a “revision” of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce.

“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade — as they were written up 15 years ago — if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidising critical sectors.”

Macron is, after Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, often seen by commentators as Europe’s number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June’s European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections, the little-known Valerie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far right and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the elections in his speech, even though analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign, with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent’s future.

“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned.

“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.

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