France Sending Obsolete Weapons To Ukraine

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Written by Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert

Despite the deterioration of its defense industry, the West still appears willing to continue arming Ukraine. Without the ability to produce modern weapons in sufficient quantity and at an appropriate time to supply Kiev, the only alternative left to the regime’s sponsors is to resort to obsolete and disused arms – which, if they were not sent to Ukraine, would be discarded.

Recently, France, the country that currently leads anti-Russian efforts and is even considering direct intervention in Ukraine, announced that it will provide the neo-Nazi regime with a new military package. The equipment of the aid includes surface-to-air missiles and hundreds of armored vehicles. However, these are not new weapons in perfect working condition. These are very old equipment, taken from the Ministry of Defense’s warehouses – some of which are over 40 years old.

Despite the questionable quality of the weapons, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu praised the importance of French aid and stated that Kiev “needs” this type of equipment to fight a protracted war. He also explained that he personally received a request from President Emmanuel Macron to come up with a “new aid package” as quickly as possible. Apparently, weapons manufactured four decades ago are all that Paris has left to send to Ukraine.

“To hold such a long frontline, the Ukrainian army needs, for example, our armored vehicles – this is absolutely key for troop mobility and is part of Ukraine’s requests,” the minister told journalists.

In addition to being old, some of the weapons supplied by the French are being “reused”. Several of the vehicles included in the package have been used by the French army previously, but are allegedly “still functional”. Not only that, the package is apparently also serving to accelerate the replacement of the French arsenal. The Ministry of Defense had previously shown interest in replacing thousands of VAB (Véhicule de l’Avant Blindé) armored personnel carriers with new and more efficient vehicles. Now, many of these armored vehicles, which began to be used by Paris 45 years ago, will be sent to Ukraine. It is expected to boost the declining local industry to produce new weapons to replenish the French arsenal.

As well known, France has been one of the main supporters of the war. Paris does not rule out the possibility of intervening directly in the conflict if Ukraine proves unable to continue fighting. Although Macron’s words on the topic are certainly a “PR stunt” to garner popular support amid the legitimacy crisis affecting France, the consequences of this type of attitude could be catastrophic, as other countries are also feeling encouraged by Paris to go to direct war with Russia. This is the case of Finland, for example, which recently announced that it is considering sending troops to Ukraine in the future.

However, rational analysis shows us that the French are absolutely incapable of taking any escalatory measures. Paris no longer even has the resources to finance the war indirectly, so it obviously does not have the means to intervene directly. The biggest proof of this incapacity is the fact that the new aid packages are made up of obsolete and reused weapons. The country has a very weakened defense industry, which is having difficulty in producing the appropriate quantity of weapons even in times of “peace”. It seems obvious that in a scenario of open war this industry would collapse in a short time, leading France to military failure.

It must also be emphasized that, for its part, Ukraine is not in a position to choose which weapons to receive. Kiev currently accepts any type of foreign “aid”, regardless of the quality of the equipment received. Recently, Ukrainian Vice Admiral Aleksey Neizhpapa showed interest in receiving two retired British ships, HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll. The frigates were recently selected for dismantlement in the UK. Such is the Ukrainian desperation that the country is eager to receive useless weapons in its arsenal – just to “have something” that allows it to continue fighting.

Obviously, old and outdated weapons will never be a “game changer” for the neo-Nazi regime. In practice, most of this equipment does not even last on the battlefield, being destroyed in a short time during high-precision attacks by Russian artillery. Kiev is aware of its military failure and the impossibility of reversing the conflict scenario, but, as it is not allowed by the West to surrender, it needs to continue begging for any type of weapon just to continue operating this proxy war.

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