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UKRAINE

Macron urges French defence firms to ramp up production

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged defence manufacturers to boost production and innovation as Europe struggles to increase arms supplies to buttress Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron (C) and French Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu (C) inspect a Caesar self-propelled artillery system during a visit to the Cherbourg naval base
French President Emmanuel Macron (C) and French Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu (C) inspect a Caesar self-propelled artillery system during a visit to the Cherbourg naval base, as part of the president's New Year's wishes to the French army, in Cherbourg, northwestern France, on January 19, 2024. (Photo by Christophe PETIT TESSON / POOL / AFP)

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Macron has pushed the defence industry to switch to “war economy mode”, reiterating his call during a visit to the Cherbourg naval base in northwestern France.

“We must amplify the transformation we have begun” to respond more quickly to Ukraine’s needs in its war against Russia, Macron said in his New Year’s address to the French armed forces.

“We can’t let Russia think that it can win,” Macron added, warning that “a Russian victory would mean the end of European security”.

“We must never again be satisfied with production deadlines that extend over several years,” the president said.

He said defence manufacturers were expected to ramp up speed and volume as well as innovate.

Macron praised France’s “high quality” weapons but stressed that the country had not produced or innovated enough in the past, the “comfortable years” that he said provoked “a form of self-satisfied numbness”.

“This world no longer allows that,” he said.

Macron said some defence firms had been slow to understand “the importance of being able to deliver quickly” and had “over the last year and a half sometimes missed out on contracts, which I regret”.

On Thursday, Ukraine warned that its army faced a “very real and pressing” ammunition shortage.

The European Union had promised to deliver one million shells by early 2024, but European Parliament lawmakers say only 300,000 have been delivered so far.

A French Senate report published Wednesday said Paris and other European governments were “not up to the challenge” of meeting Ukraine’s ammunition requirements.

Last year France adopted a 413-billion-euro ($450 billion) military budget for 2024-2030, its most significant spending increase in decades.

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UKRAINE

France charges two Moldovans over coffin graffiti in Paris

French prosecutors on Saturday charged two Moldovans suspected of painting coffins and a slogan urging an end to Ukraine war on the facade of a prominent Paris newspaper, a judicial source said.

France charges two Moldovans over coffin graffiti in Paris

It was just the latest in a series of such acts in the capital in recent weeks. French officials have repeatedly warned of the risks of disinformation and other attacks by Russia over France’s support for Kyiv.

Tension between Paris and Moscow has increased since President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this year he had not ruled out sending troops to Ukraine.

The two men, who carried Moldovan passports, were arrested overnight Thursday-Friday after six red coffins and the phrase “Stop the Death, Mriya, Ukraine” were painted on the building of right-wing daily Le Figaro. Mriya means “dream” in Ukrainian.

They are being held on charges of destruction of property and participating in “an effort to demoralise the army to harm national defence in peacetime”, the source said.

Six similar coffins were found early Thursday on the facade of the Agence France-Presse headquarters in central Paris, not far from the Figaro offices.

A source close to the case said the two Moldovans claimed to have been paid around €100 to paint the graffiti.

A separate investigations has been opened after graffiti showing French Mirage fighter jets in the form of coffins were found last Tuesday in three districts of Paris. They included the phrase “Mirages for Ukraine”.

Similar graffiti was discovered on the walls of the AFP building Monday.

Macron announced in early June that France would send Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train their Ukrainian pilots as part of a new military cooperation with Kyiv.

On June 8, French police said they were holding three young Moldovans suspected of being behind inscriptions of coffins in Paris with the slogan “French soldiers in Ukraine”.

They were later charged with property damage and released.

Moldova’s Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi posted on X, formerly Twitter: “We regret and firmly condemn the incident”.

He said the “vandalism” was “part of hybrid tactics to harm our international image”.

Popsoi reiterated his comment on Saturday, denouncing an “instigation to hate”.

“We call on Moldovan citizens to be vigilant and not to allow themselves to be manipulated to the detriment of our country.”

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