PARIS, March 8 (Reuters) –
Three French companies will produce military equipment in Ukraine, said Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu on Friday, who clarified that there was no question of sending combat troops on the ground.
“French companies will create partnerships, three of them (…), with Ukrainian companies, to produce spare parts, perhaps even ammunition, on Ukrainian soil,” declared the minister during an interview on BFMTV.
Among the companies concerned, the minister notably named Delair, specializing in the manufacturing of drones.
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“The idea is to find a local partnership to create commercial agreements which also allow, incidentally, to look at what the Ukrainian market will be in the long term.”
Sébastien Lecornu also announced that he had placed an order for 200 Aster anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles from the defense company MBDA, “those that our frigates are firing in the Red Sea to protect boats when there are attacks from the Houthis and who serve on the SAMP/T, the equivalent of the French ‘Patriot'”.
The minister promised, regarding this order, that “payment credits will follow” and that it was now up to MBDA to “deliver as quickly as possible these 200 Aster missiles which will be used as much for the French army as for the Ukrainian army “.
The question of support for Kyiv will be the subject of debates and votes next Tuesday and Wednesday in the National Assembly and the Senate after Emmanuel Macron’s declaration not excluding a possible sending of troops to Ukraine.
The French president, who has hardened his position towards Russia, went further on Thursday by declaring, according to comments reported by the press, that French support for Ukraine had “no limits”.
Sébastien Lecornu affirmed that France would not send combat troops on the ground despite the stagnation of the conflict in Ukraine.
“We are no longer in the same situation as two years ago, on the front in Ukraine, where the counter-offensive did not work as it should have (…), in Moscow with the assassination of ‘Alexei Navalny. The minister also notes more aggressive interactions with the Russian army which notably threatened, according to Paris, to shoot down French fighters over the Black Sea, in the international zone. (Written by Kate Entringer and Bertrand Boucey, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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