France is supplying Milan anti-tank missiles and Caesar guns to Ukraine to help it deal with the Russian invasion, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with West France released on Friday. So far, Paris had been careful not to specify the types of armaments delivered to kyiv, conceding just mid-April “100 million euros in donations of equipment already made” and announcing the supply of “additional military capabilities”.
“Do not enter into co-belligerence”
“We deliver (…) substantial equipment, from Milan to Caesar through several types of armaments,” Emmanuel Macron told the daily, who asked him about the supply of heavy weapons by Europe to the EU. Ukraine. “I think we have to continue on this path. Always with a red line which is not to enter into co-belligerence”, he added.
Asked, the Elysee Palace did not specify the number of Milan missiles and Caesar guns delivered, so as not to “give operational information” which could be used by the Russian army. The Milan missiles “have already been given”, according to this source. The worldwhich revealed the information on March 9, referred to “a few dozen weapons” taken from the stocks of the French army.
The delivery of the Caesars is “in progress, they will be delivered in the coming days” as well as “thousands of shells”, according to the Elysée. About forty Ukrainian soldiers must also be trained in France in their handling from Saturday, added the presidency without further details.
76 Caesar guns at the disposal of the French army
The French Army has 76 Caesars. This truck-mounted 155mm gun with a range of 40 kilometers has also been exported to Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Indonesia, Morocco, the Czech Republic and Thailand. Several NATO countries have already given the green light to deliveries of heavy weapons, such as the United States, Great Britain, the Czech Republic or the Netherlands.
On Thursday, the United States announced additional US aid to Ukraine of $800 million, including 72 Howitzer howitzers and their vehicles as well as 144,000 shells. “It’s important, because of the nature of the fighting we anticipate in Donbass, because of the terrain, because it’s open, because it’s flat, because it’s not as urbanized,” explained Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. “We think it will be a force multiplier” for the Ukrainians.
Germany has pledged to help the Eastern European allies supplying kyiv with Soviet-made weapons, also used by the Ukrainian army, by replacing the equipment they will provide.