France to send Kyiv armoured vehicles by next weekend

France said today that it would begin to deliver the armored vehicles which he had promised in Ukraine in his war against Russia next weekend.

Vehicles, of the AMX-10 type and sometimes described as “light tanks”, are used for armed recognition and attacks against enemy tanks. said the Sunday’s Sunday edition of the newspaper. He refused to specify the number of vehicles for the first time, saying that he did not want to give Russia “strategic information”.

According to the French Ministry of Defense, the AMX-10 is highly mobile, “quickly powerful” and offers protection against lightning strikes. Their combat weight is 20 tons, about one-third that of the French Leclerc battle tank.

The French military began replacing the AMX-10s, first produced in the 1970s, with modern vehicles called Jaguars. French President Emmanuel Macron promised in early January that France would send AMX-10s, after months of fears that the deployment of the weapons could escalate tensions with nuclear-armed Russia. worse. .

The training of Ukrainian personnel on the AMX-10 is now “almost complete”, said Lecornu. The general training of the Ukrainian army “is increasing”, Lecornu added, both in France and Poland, another NATO member.

Starting in March, 600 Ukrainian soldiers will receive training every month, he said. Asked about the deployment of military aircraft to Ukraine, an urgent request from President Volodymyr Zelensky, Lecornu said the issue was “not an obstacle”.

But he said such military aid raised “urgent and practical questions”.