France has started delivering to Ukraine a large number of Scalp cruise missiles, which will be integrated into non-Western warplanes, a French military source said on Tuesday.
The French source told reporters at a briefing during the NATO summit in Lithuania that the missiles, which have a range of 250 km, will only be used within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.
He added that Paris doesn’t consider this an escalation of the war, given that Russia is launching missiles of much greater range.
In response to the French President’s announcement of Paris’ decision to provide Kiev with long-range missiles, the Kremlin said that this decision was wrong and would have dire consequences for Ukraine.
Commenting on France’s plans announced by Macron, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Of course, it still remains to be clarified to what extent the conversation is going from our point of view, this is a wrong decision, which will have consequences for the Ukrainian side, because, of course, this will force us to take countermeasures”.
Peskov stressed that this step will not affect the course of the special operation, saying, “Once again we confirm our principled approach… Such decisions cannot, and aren’t able to influence the course of events within the framework of the special military operation… They can only make the fate of the Kiev regime more difficult”.
The French President Emmanuel Macron announced before the start of the NATO summit, on Tuesday, in Lithuanian caital, Vilnius, that France had decided to provide Kiev with new long-range missiles that would allow Ukrainian forces to launch depth strikes.
