France boosts arms production for Ukraine, denies presence of mercenaries in the country

(Patria) - France announced planned deliveries of its Caesar artillery system to Ukraine and accelerated arms production on Thursday, as it seeks to avoid depleting its own military stocks while supporting the war effort against the Russian invasion, AP reported.

"The logic of donating material taken from military stocks is coming to an end," French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu told Le Parisien.

"From now on, the solution is to directly connect the French defense industry with the Ukrainian army," he added.

France has also launched a financing initiative for the delivery of 78 Caesar 155 mm self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine this year. Ukraine has already paid for six, and France will provide 50 million euros for the delivery of twelve more, Lecornu said.

France is also seeking 280 million euros from other allies of Ukraine to pay for 60 other Caesar howitzers, he said. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Russian forces are firing five times more artillery shells, and up to ten times more in some places, than Ukrainian forces, and that stronger artillery is "one of our key needs to win this war," adding that "the shortage of ammunition, the hunger for shells, is a very real and urgent problem."

Lecornu said increased deliveries of shells for Ukraine are on the way. Starting this month, France will deliver 3,000 shells for 155 mm caliber cannons per month, compared to 1,000 shells per month at the beginning of the war and 2,000 per month since last April, Lecornu said.

Production of other hardware is also increasing. It used to take French manufacturer Nexter thirty months to produce one Caesar, but now it takes half that time, Lecornu said. Caesars are among a range of Western-supplied artillery systems that have given Ukrainian gunners an edge, especially when paired with precision-guided munitions, against Russian artillery batteries using older Soviet systems.

Thales now takes six months, down from eighteen months, to deliver a GM200 radar supplied to Ukraine for air defense, and MBDA's production time for its Mistral short-range air defense missile has been significantly reduced, the minister said.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, France was among the countries that quickly provided weapons from their stockpiles to help bolster Ukraine's defense. Like Caesars, France has supplied light tanks, long-range cruise missiles, air defense systems, and other hardware, support, and military training. In total, French aid is estimated to be worth billions of euros.

Lecornu said that 49 previously delivered Caesars are operational in Ukraine. Based on battlefield feedback, the system is being improved to allow Ukrainian gunners to better target Russian tanks, the minister said.

More deliveries have been promised. French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans this week to deliver about forty additional long-range Storm Shadow missiles and "several hundred bombs." He also announced his intention to travel to Ukraine again next month, saying, "We cannot allow Russia to win."

"At this stage of the war, we need endurance in our military aid to Kyiv," Lecornu said.

"Russia is betting that time is on its side."

He added that Russia, Iran, and North Korea are testing the courage of Ukraine's partners.

"Our capacity to show endurance and reliability is being watched in Moscow, Pyongyang, or Tehran."

France on Thursday denied Moscow's claims that Russian forces had bombed French "mercenaries" in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, AFP reported.

"France does not have 'mercenaries' in Ukraine or anywhere else, unlike some people," the Foreign Ministry said, calling it "yet another clumsy Russian manipulation."

Moscow's Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday that it had targeted "foreign militants in the city of Kharkiv, whose core was made up of French mercenaries" in an attack on January 16. The ministry claimed to have killed dozens of foreign militants and wounded many more in the attack, but provided no evidence. Russian state news agency TASS reported that the French ambassador had been summoned for talks over the incident.

Attacks since Tuesday have devastated a multi-story building in central Kharkiv. Local authorities said 17 civilians were injured, while the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegubov, said there were no military targets in the area.