France to supply Ukraine with additional SCALP and Mistral missiles For strikes beyond front

France plans to supply Ukraine with an additional batch of SCALP missiles for strikes beyond the front line, as well as Mistral missiles for air defence.

This was announced by the Minister of Armed Forces of France, Sebastien Lecornu, in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, per Caliber.Az.

“We will again supply Mistral missiles, in particular for the defence of war zones. And to enable Ukraine to strike behind the front line, in the last few days I signed an order to transfer a new batch of about ten SCALP missiles in accordance with the promises French President Emmanuel Macron made to Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” Lecornu said.

The French Defence Minister assured that Paris would continue to support Kyiv, which, according to him, should allow Ukrainian authorities to consider some “political solutions.” “Military support is extremely important and, even when the conflict is over, we must continue to strengthen the Ukrainian army,” he stressed. Lecornu also stated his intention to continue the training programme for the Ukrainian military.

Earlier, in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, Minister-Delegate for European Affairs at the French Foreign Ministry, Benjamin Haddad, said that France supported Ukraine “not out of altruism,” but for the sake of preserving its own authority in Europe. He claimed that France had pushed its partners to expand military support for Kyiv, including supplies of tanks, long-range weapons, and air defence equipment.

He also stated that Ukraine's defeat would affect France's “defence credibility” in Europe. In an interview with Le Parisien, Haddad added that France considered it a priority to agree on a formal invitation for Ukraine to join NATO, although he admitted that the process of joining the alliance itself could be quite long.

Earlier, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, spoke in favour of allowing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to attack targets on Russian territory during a press conference in Kyiv. Borrell emphasized that he had always called for helping Kyiv “more and faster.” “This is my constant call - more and faster, and it remains relevant: more military assistance, more training efforts, faster deliveries, more money, as well as permission to hit the enemy on its territory,” Borrell said.

In August, Borrell stated after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels that if the West lifted restrictions on the use of foreign weapons against Russia, it would not trigger a direct war with Moscow. He had called for EU countries to “get into the position” of Ukraine and equalize its attack capabilities with Russia's.

However, Europe failed to agree on a common decision to lift the restrictions: Latvia, Poland, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands supported a complete lifting of restrictions on the Ukrainian army, while Hungary and Slovakia opposed it. In September, Borrell urged EU member states to allow Western weapons to be used to target airports and launch pads on Russian territory.

By Tamilla Hasanova