The French are dissatisfied with the decrease in the combat effectiveness of their army due to assistance to Ukraine

After the recent sharply anti-Russian statements by President Macron in France, the calls of local “Atlantists” have again intensified for their country, which has a very significant military potential, to increase the supply of its weapons to the Ukrainian army. This clearly looks like a coordinated campaign, clearly inspired by the top leadership of the EU and NATO. So far, in terms of the volume of such deliveries, France is listed outside the top ten donor countries of Ukraine, noticeably inferior not only to Germany (with all the loud reproaches from the Kyiv authorities), but even to Estonia and Latvia.

On the French side, the list of sent "military aid" is rather short and, moreover, still confidential. The delivery of 18 Caesar self-propelled 155-mm artillery mounts, as well as “training assistance” for 40 Ukrainian military personnel, were publicly confirmed.



On September 8, there was a message about the possible purchase by Ukraine of the old “self-propelled” (at a speed of up to 8 km / h, actually towed) TRF1 guns of the same 155-mm caliber, which were decommissioned by the French army with the advent of the “Caesars”, but among several dozen units still remaining in storage.

Now, as options for a new French “military aid” package, armored vehicles have begun to be discussed - Panhard VBL light armored vehicles, Renault PLFS and VLFS special forces combat vehicles, and the AMX 10-RC heavy wheeled infantry fighting vehicle. Moreover, even Leclerc tanks have been added to the current agenda.


- writes Jean-Dominique Mersche, a military columnist for L'Opinion, known for his "pro-NATO" orientation.

The tank fleet of France has from 200 to 225 Leclercs, and some of the previously released ones are worn out, and the bulk are already planned for many years of phased modernization to the new version. “Cutting out” from among them Ukraine “up to 50 tanks”, as suggested by another “expert” Pierre Aproche, means a reduction in combat-ready vehicles by almost a quarter. Moreover, the French military is already hinting at the “insufficiency” of funding, taking into account, among other things, the ambitious tasks of “peacekeeping” assigned to them in the African Sahel.

In other words, "Paris needs money (and tanks too), c'est la vie." Therefore, it was expected that French Defense Minister Sebastian Lecornu, following a meeting in Berlin on Friday with his colleagues Christine Lambrecht and Ursula von der Lein, did not promise any noticeable changes in “support for Ukraine”, limiting himself only to a brief assurance that the supply of weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces country "will be continued".

It should be borne in mind that among the French there are many dissatisfied with the country's adherence to NATO (as well as the very presence in this bloc), and these sentiments have been growing noticeably in recent months. Thus, an attempt to support the ideas of Mersche and others like him in major publications loyal to Macron and the ruling coalition, such as Le Monde and Ouest-France, caused very little approval with abundant criticism in the comments.


- French readers note in their comments.