PARIS (AP) – France announced more planned deliveries of its Caesar artillery system to Ukraine on Thursday and accelerating weapons manufacturing as it seeks to avoid depleting its own military stocks. “The logic of ceding materiel taken from the armies’ stocks is reaching its end,” the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview with Le Parisien. “From now on, the solution is to directly connect French defence industries with the Ukrainian army.”
France also launched a drive to fund the delivery of 78 Caesar self-propelled 155 millimetres (mm) howitzers to Ukraine this year. Ukraine has already paid for six of the guns itself and France will provide EUR50 million (USD54 million) to deliver 12 more, Lecornu said separately in a speech.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, speaking by video link, said Russian forces are firing five times more artillery shells, even 10 times more in some places, than Ukrainian forces along the front lines and that stronger artillery “is one of our key needs to win this war”.
“Shortage of ammunition, shell hunger, is a very real and pressing problem,” he said.
Lecornu said increased supplies of shells for Ukraine are on their way. From this month, France will supply 3,000 shells for 155mm guns per month at the start of the war and 2,000 per month since last April, Lecornu said.
Caesars are among an array of Western-supplied artillery systems that have given Ukrainian gun crews an edge, especially when paired with high-precision munitions, against Russian artillery batteries using older Soviet-designed systems.
Following Russia’s February 24, 2022, attack on Ukraine, France was among countries that quickly released weapons from its own armouries to help shore up Ukrainian defences.
As well as Caesars, France has supplied light tanks, long-range cruise missiles, air defence systems and other hardware, support and military training. Combined, French aid is estimated to be worth billions of euros.
Lecornu said 49 previously delivered Caesars are in operation in Ukraine. Based on battlefield feedback, the system is being improved to enable Ukrainian gunners to better target Russian tanks, the minister said.
More deliveries are promised. French President Emmanuel Macron this week announced plans to supply about 40 additional long-range Storm Shadow missiles and “several hundred bombs”.
He also announced his intention to travel again to Ukraine next month, saying, “We cannot let Russia win”.
