Update on the situation at 4 p.m.
The French Armed Forces Minister launched the “Artillery Coalition” initiative on Thursday by announcing the production of 78 Caesar cannons for Ukraine. Sébastien Lecornu also promised to deploy around fifty A2SM air-to-surface missiles every month starting in January and throughout the year.
“The ammunition shortage is a very real and pressing problem that our armed forces are currently facing.”, complained Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who took part in the initiative via video conference. “We must strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities to protect the free world from the Russian threat.” »
“France, unlike others, has no “mercenaries”, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere”the State Department said on Thursday in response to the Russian authorities' claims.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday evening that the army had “carried out a high-precision attack on the point of temporary deployment of foreign fighters” in Kharkiv. “The majority of them are French. More than 60 militants were killed and more than 20 injured.”he added.
Ukrainian military intelligence attacked an oil depot in the St. Petersburg region at night, in northwestern Russia, using drones, Agence France-Presse reports, citing a source within the Ukrainian security services. The sector is almost 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Russian forces sent 33 Iranian-developed drones to Ukraine overnight, 22 of which were interceptedand guided missiles in the direction of Kharkiv in the east of the country, according to the Ukrainian army.