France is considering new deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine, in particular 6 to 12 Caesar guns from an order for Denmark, we learned on Monday from a source familiar with the matter, confirming information from “Le Monde”.
According to this source, the operation is ongoing in talks between the three governments at this time.
Paris has already delivered 18 examples of this truck-mounted 155mm gun, amputating almost a quarter of the French army fleet.
These additional Nexter-produced weapons come from an order for 19 Caesars placed by Denmark in 2017, according to Le Monde. The Caesars destined for Denmark are equipped with an armored cab and eight wheels, while the French Army models, which are lighter because they are not armored, have only six wheels. They also carry more shells (30 versus 18) that can be fired at 40 kilometers.
According to another source familiar with the matter, Paris also plans to provide Kyiv with 20 Bastion armored vehicles, confirming information from La Tribune.
The order would be issued by the Ministry of Armed Forces, which would then transfer them to Ukraine. That could be implemented quickly, especially since the manufacturer Arquus already has several of these armored personnel carriers produced.
France is regularly singled out, especially by Eastern European countries, for its low level of military aid to Ukraine. This represents less than 2% of the total military support to Kyiv, which comes mostly from the United States, according to François Heisbourg of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Since the start of the conflict, Paris has supplied 155mm TRF1 towed guns – 15 according to one source familiar with the matter – VAB armored vehicles, Milan anti-tank missiles and Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, in addition to 18 Caesar guns.