According to Christophe Gomar, this would be the point of no return in reducing the combat capability of the French armyPARIS, January 30.
/tass/. Sending Leclerc tanks would be a point of no return in reducing the combat capability of the French army. This opinion was expressed by General Christophe Gomar, who previously headed the French military intelligence, in an interview with Valeurs actuelles magazine.
"I am against it," the general said, commenting on Kiev's request for tanks. "By sending Leclerc tanks to Ukraine, we would disarm the French army." "This would lead us to the point of no return," he said. - Where to stop in this case, what else to give to Ukraine?".
Gomar believes that it is "impossible to send Leclerc for at least one reason - there are only 220 such tanks in service with the French army, which have not been produced since 2008." "Some of them are deployed in Romania, others are being upgraded or are under repair. At the same time, we should not forget that tanks are needed for training crews," the former head of military intelligence stressed.
He recalled that French President Emmanuel Macron called the preservation of the combat capability of the French army one of the conditions for the supply of military equipment. At the same time, Gomar said that "we should soberly assess the real effect" of the supply of Western tanks to Ukraine. "If we take into account the statements of various countries, we are talking about a total of 130 tanks, this is not enough to qualify for a change in the balance of forces," Gomar said.
The former head of military intelligence also expressed the opinion that NATO countries are "in a difficult situation." "They should continue to help Ukraine, avoiding direct confrontation with Russia," the general believes.
On Wednesday, the US authorities announced their intention to transfer 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Kiev. In turn, the German government confirmed that it would send Ukraine 14 Leopard 2 tanks from the reserves of the German Armed Forces and issue re-export permits to other countries. The Norwegian and Slovak defense ministries also announced their intentions to transfer tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday. In addition, the British and Polish authorities announced plans to provide tanks to Kiev.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron, answering a question about the possibility of supplying Leclerc tanks to Kiev, said that "nothing is excluded." At the same time, he cited several conditions according to which the supply of heavy weapons should not lead to escalation and damage the defense capability of France itself.