They will be delivered “in the coming weeks”. France announced on Tuesday that it would deliver twelve new Caesar guns to Ukraine. They will be added to the eighteen howitzers already delivered by France as well as the nineteen Caesar guns promised by Denmark in kyiv in mid-January. “A mass that is not negligible” according to the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, which will eventually allow Ukraine to have around fifty copies.
These new guns will be “financed as part of the support fund of 200 million euros” set up by France, said Tuesday, January 31, Mr. Lecornu, during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiï Reznikov, who was making his first bilateral visit since the start of the war last February.
Of the eighteen already delivered by France, only one is now out of order. “There is maintenance to be carried out on the seventeen that remain, linked to combat or to the classic wear and tear of this type of equipment”, informed the minister. Regarding the Caesars donated by Denmark, Copenhagen had ordered these artillery pieces from the French group Nexter between 2017 and 2019. But deliveries have been delayed and only a few copies have already been delivered.
Ukraine will receive “120 to 140 tanks” from the West
Half of the French support fund of 200 million euros has already been spent, Mr. Lecornu announced last week. The twelve new Caesars – which cost around 60 million euros – and the Ground Master 200 (GM200) radar, will still add to a fund that could quickly be exhausted. This radar, also promised by France to Ukraine, is produced by Thales.
Paris also has “engaged in discussions with [ses] allies to allow to have a always sufficient stock » of French Crotale surface-to-air missiles for Ukraine, underlined the Minister for the Armed Forces. The Crotale has been supplied to some fifteen countries, including Greece, Finland and South Korea.
“This material helps us get closer to the day of our victory. The Rattlesnakes destroy 100% of the targets so it is very important to close the Ukrainian skies”, commented Mr. Reznikov. Finally, the French Minister of the Armed Forces also announced the dispatch of 150 French soldiers to Poland to train Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukraine also announced on Tuesday that the West had already pledged to deliver “between 120 and 140” tanks to repel the Russian army, which has recently stepped up its offensive, claiming the capture of a new village near the hot spot of Bakhmout. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said the tanks were German-designed Leopard 2s, British Challenger 2s and American Abrams.