November 24, 2024
French foreign minister backs longer-range weapon use by Ukraine
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the BBC that Ukraine may launch French longer-range missiles into Russia “in the logics of self-defense.”
He did not, however, reveal whether Ukraine had already used French-provided longer-range weapons on Russian targets. However, the French Scalp missiles are the same as the UK Storm Shadow missiles, which Ukraine has already fired into Russia.
Barrot said there were no “red lines” when it comes to backing Ukraine. He added that French messages to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “have been well received.”
“We will support Ukraine as intensely and as long as necessary. Why? Because it is our security that is at stake. Each time the Russian army progresses by one square kilometer, the threat gets one square kilometer closer to Europe,” Barrot said. He did not definitively rule out the deployment of French troops in Ukrainian combat zones.
Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova derided Barrot’s comments regarding longer-range missiles. She said French permission for the use of the weapons is “not support for Ukraine, but rather a death knell for Ukraine.”
The remarks by France’s foreign minister come after US President Joe Biden greenlit the use of long-range ATACMS missiles by Ukraine, which have a range of 300 kilometers (190 miles). Soon thereafter, Russia accused Ukraine of firing the ATACMS missiles into the western Russian Bryansk region next to Belarus.
Earlier this week, British media reported that Ukraine had fired Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russia’s Kursk region. Developed in cooperation with France, the Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missiles can hit targets as far as 250 kilometers (155 miles) away.
Although some Western countries back the use of longer-range weapons by Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly shied away from sending longer-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, due to fears of escalation and lack of support for such a move among the German population. Taurus missiles have a maximum range of 500 kilometers (300 miles).
wd/ab (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)
