French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the possibility of supplying Kyiv with French Leclerc tanks, transmits French edition of BFMTV.
“Nothing is excluded and is evaluated collectively according to three criteria”, Macron answered the question of journalists.
The president described the criteria as follows. The first criterion is “this is not an escalation”. Second: providing real support to Ukraine. Third: the supply of weapons should not weaken the defense capability of France.
Earlier, the United States reported that France was exploring the possibility of sending Leclerc main battle tanks to Ukraine. At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that the tanks be handed over to him as soon as possible, which drew criticism from the French.
Also, France has already decided to transfer tanks to Ukraine. True, wheeled.
Deliveries of tanks to Ukraine were discussed by the United States and European countries in mid-January at the Ramstein airbase. However, the only country that will actually send this type of weapon to Kyiv will be the UK, which will give 12 Challenger vehicles. Germany and the United States have decided to keep the tanks for now, and Poland, which has expressed a desire to send German Leopards, cannot do this without the consent of the FRG, although it threatens to do so. France did not make any statements on the results of the meeting.
