French President Emmanuel Macron has rejected criticism that his country would lack weapons due to deliveries to Ukraine. “It’s wrong and dangerous at the same time,” Macron told the newspaper “Le Parisien” on Sunday. “As Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, I can assure you that whenever we deliver, we do so while preserving all our defense capabilities for our soil, our critical facilities and our nationals.”
The right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen had previously criticized the broadcaster CNews that France could not, at the expense of its own security, supply arms to Ukraine to defend it against Russia’s war of aggression. All material that is sent to Ukraine is missing from France – either for the army or for other supply contracts. They believe that Paris should not give any more Caesar howitzers to Kyiv.
Macron accused Le Pen of leading a “surrender discourse” because she was a friend of the Russian authorities. “If we hadn’t delivered the Caesar howitzers, the Ukrainians would have lost territory,” Macron said. “I want our fellow citizens to know that we spend the money we spend defending our values and our freedoms.”
France has so far delivered 18 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine, with more arms shipments to follow. Macron had already assured the broadcaster TF1 that the industry would produce more and faster and that France would take back some of the weapons that it had sold to other countries and that were not needed there.