Light armored vehicles AMX-10 will be delivered to Ukraine from the end of next week, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in an interview with the Parisien newspaper today, without specifying their number.

Thus, the deliveries of cars will coincide with the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

In early January, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a decision to send these armored personnel carriers as part of an increase in NATO deliveries of equipment to Ukraine after months of hesitation due to concerns about Moscow’s escalation.

The French president then did not specify the number of armored personnel carriers that could be sent.

“I will not give a figure so as not to give Russia strategic information,” the defense minister stressed to a French newspaper.

Instead, the minister said the training of Ukrainians in this new weapon was “nearing completion”, hence the delivery “from the end of next week”.

“In general, the pace of training is accelerating, both in our country with special training on the equipment we supply, and in Poland with more general training of entire battalions at the rate of 600 soldiers per month, starting in March,” he added. .

Regarding the possible delivery of fighter jets requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sebastian Lecornu emphasizes that “this is not a taboo” but points to the complexity of “logistical and practical issues.”

The French minister also does not rule out the training of Ukrainian pilots, as the British did.

Macron: I want Moscow’s defeat

Finally, he defended France’s position to maintain “channels for discussion with the Russians whenever it would be useful”, echoing the words of Emmanuel Macron.

“This is the role of such a gifted power as France,” he stressed, recalling that Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging “this conventional war under the shadow of his nuclear deterrence.”

“This is one of the differences from other previous conflicts, and it leads us to control the escalation,” he insisted.

Emmanuel Macron said he wants Moscow’s “defeat” to Ukraine, while warning those who want to “crush Russia first of all” that this “will never be the position of France.”

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.