France will ship 12 extra Caesar truck-mounted howitzers and recent air defence gear to Ukraine to bolster the struggle towards Russian invaders, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu stated Tuesday.
rance will ship 12 extra Caesar truck-mounted howitzers and recent air defence gear to Ukraine to bolster the struggle towards Russian invaders, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu stated Tuesday.
The artillery items, including to 18 already delivered, can be financed from a 200-million-euro ($217-million) pot France set as much as fund arms for Kyiv, Lecornu informed a Paris press convention along with his Ukranian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov.
The transfer comes with France but to decide to sending Leclerc essential battle tanks to Ukraine, after spending weeks pressuring Berlin to produce its Leopard 2 and permit allies to re-export the German-made tanks.
Alongside different Western cellular cannons such because the German Panzerhaubitze 2000, the Caesar was credited final yr with serving to Ukraine strike targets deep behind Russian traces, undermining Moscow’s offensive.
The truck-mounted 155mm weapons can arrange, hearth a highly-accurate volley at ranges of as much as 40 kilometres (25 miles) and shift place earlier than the enemy can find them and hearth again.
Lecornu stated the brand new batch of howitzers can be delivered “within the coming weeks” and had initially been ordered by Copenhagen.
Denmark has additionally pledged its complete current 19-strong fleet of the French-made howitzers to the Ukrainian struggle effort.
“We’ve now reached a mass (of Caesar cannons) that can’t be missed,” Lecornu stated.
– Air defence –
Paris may also give Kiev a Floor Grasp 200 radar able to detecting enemy plane at distances so far as 250 kilometres, together with low-flying drones.
The radar can even detect incoming rockets or artillery hearth and warn pleasant troops.
rance can be working “with our allies” on offering extra missiles for its Crotale surface-to-air defence system, Lecornu stated.
Round 15 international locations function the Crotale, together with Greece, Finland and South Korea.
“The Crotales destroy one hundred pc of their targets, so it’s crucial for closing the skies over Ukraine,” Reznikov stated.
inally, Lecornu stated 150 French troops can be despatched to Poland to coach Ukrainian troopers.
Reznikov stated he had not requested France for fight plane such because the extensively exported Mirage collection.
However “tactical aviation is a element of our anti-air defence” and “we have to strengthen our capabilities”, he added.
rance was by early December the seventh-largest supporter of Ukraine because the struggle broke out, in accordance with information on army and monetary help collated by the Germany-based Institute for the World Economic system think-tank.
That rating had not taken under consideration main bulletins of army gear for Kyiv final month, together with AMX-10 RC gentle tanks, in addition to Germany’s promise of the Leopard 2.
However European donors stay far wanting the USA’ army help commitments.
