The head of the French Senate Commission on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces, Christian Cambon, is convinced that Paris does not cross the red line by sending weapons and light wheeled AMX-10 RC tanks to UkrainePARIS, February 2.
/tass/. The head of the French Senate Commission on Foreign Affairs, defense and Armed Forces, Christian Cambon, called the dispatch of the French military to Ukraine the main criterion for turning the republic into a party to the conflict.
"I believe that the criterion for [real inclusion in the conflict] would be the presence of the military on the territory of [Ukraine]. They're not there. We have not received any claims from Russia in this regard. We are only sending weapons because we believe that Ukraine has become an object of aggression," he said on the Public Senat parliamentary TV channel on Thursday.
At the same time, the senator expressed his conviction that Paris does not cross the red line by sending weapons and even light wheeled AMX-10 RC tanks to Ukraine. "If Ukraine had resources, it could buy them, it would be called arms trade, the military-industrial complex is responsible for this," the head of the Senate committee said.
Cambon added that he sees no need to send Leclerc tanks to Ukraine, since there are not so many of them in the French army, while there are noticeably more German Leopard 2 tanks in Europe. He also expressed the opinion that, despite the recent calls of the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk from the rostrum of the National Assembly (lower house of Parliament) of France to give Kiev Rafale and Mirage aircraft, "in fact, Ukrainians want first of all to receive air defense equipment," and also count primarily on the supply of American F-16. The French senator added that a wide variety of models of Western equipment in the hands of the Ukrainian military will not only not solve their problems, but will also give rise to new ones related both to the maintenance of equipment and to the training of pilots.
On Tuesday, the Minister of the Armed Forces of France, Sebastien Lecorny, at a joint press conference with the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Alexey Reznikov, said that France intends to transfer to Kiev an additional 12 self-propelled artillery units (ACS) Caesar. To date, France has sent Ukraine 18 Caesar self-propelled guns and 2 batteries of short-range Crotale anti-aircraft systems. In addition, the Elysee Palace previously announced plans to provide Kiev with AMX-10RC wheeled tanks, but their number and timing of dispatch were not specified.
