Also, the head of the French Foreign Ministry did not rule out sending French troops to Ukraine. Moscow has warned of the risks of escalation due to such decisions.
Ukraine has the right to strike at Russian territory with French long-range missiles, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrault said in an interview with the BBC.
He stressed that Ukraine may launch strikes “in self-defense,” but has not confirmed the use of French weapons on Russian territory.
At the same time, Barro noted that Western allies should not impose restrictions on support for Ukraine and draw any “red lines.” When asked by reporters if this could even mean the participation of French troops in the battle, he said: “We are not ruling out any option.”
“We will support Ukraine as intensively and for as long as necessary. Why? Because our safety is at stake. Every time the Russian army advances one square kilometer, the threat becomes one square kilometer closer to Europe,” the French foreign minister said.
Currently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are armed with French long-range SCALP-EG missiles, the interception of which has been repeatedly reported by the Russian Defense Ministry.
SCALP-EG is the French equivalent of the British Storm Shadow. They are almost identical, except for separate hardware and software components. Such missiles are capable of hitting targets at a distance of more than 250 km. They have been supplied to Ukraine since 2023.
Le Monde noted that The Ukrainian Armed Forces currently have a limited number of SCALP missiles: Paris has already sent Kiev ten SCALP missiles and intends to supply another 30 units.
On November 19 and 21, the Russian Defense Ministry announced an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Bryansk and Kursk regions with Western long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles. After that, President Vladimir Putin announced the first use of the latest Russian medium-range hypersonic missile Oreshnik, which was aimed at “one of the largest and most famous industrial complexes since the Soviet Union” in the city of Dnipro. The Head of State stressed that the strike was a response to the use of long-range missiles by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against targets on Russian territory.
Earlier, the president repeatedly said that the use of Western long-range weapons on Russian territories would mean that the countries would be at war with Russia. “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military installations of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities, and in the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond just as decisively and in a mirror manner,” the president also said in his message on November 21.
The Ukrainian side called the use of the Oreshnik missile another step by Russia to escalate the conflict. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a “strong and tough” reaction from the allies. After the Russian strike, the United States declared that it would not stop supporting Ukraine.
https://news.mail.ru/politics/63774048/
