France to provide armoured vehicles, missiles to Ukraine

French Defence Minister said Paris would deliver “hundreds” of armoured personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles as part a new aid package to Ukraine.

“To hold such an extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs for example our VAB vehicles: it’s absolutely essential for troop mobility,” Sebastien Lecornu told La Tribune newspaper.

France is phasing out its VAB fleet – some of them more than 40 years old – with new Griffon armoured vehicles, but Lecornu said the older models were “still operational”.

“We’re talking about hundreds of them for 2024 and early 2025,” he said.

Paris will also supply more Aster 30 antiaircraft missiles for SAMP/T launchers, similar to the US-supplied Patriot air defence systems.

“We are also developing remotely operated munitions to deliver them starting this summer,” Lecornu said.

The French government is pushing defence companies to ramp up production to meet the needs of its own army and to ensure continued support to Ukraine.

Kyiv has warned its stocks of munitions are running low, urging in particular Washington to end a political standoff that has frozen a new aid package.

In related developments, the head of Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK, said that five of its six plants had been damaged or destroyed with 80% of its generating capacity lost after two weeks of Russian attacks and that repairs could take up to 18 months.

Russian missile and drone attacks hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine overnight on Friday.

DTEK has seen its power stations and other facilities hit by missiles, drones and artillery in more than two years of war. – AFP/Reuters