No official position and great discretion on the part of the Elysée and the resigned ministers. While the United Kingdom is at the forefront of attempts to convince the United States to authorize Ukraine to attack military installations located in Russia, France is cultivating ambiguity on the issue. On Friday, September 13, while Joe Biden refused to accede to this request, the French authorities, very late in this debate in a context of political turmoil in Paris, refrained from making the slightest comment.
To date, the French side is sticking to the statements made by Emmanuel Macron in Meseberg, near Berlin, on 28 May, together with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who, for his part, remains opposed to the launch of Taurus long-range missiles. “We believe that we should allow them to neutralize the military sites from which the missiles are fired and basically the military sites from which Ukraine is attacked, but we should not allow other targets in Russia to be attacked, obviously civilian capabilities or other military targets.”the French president said that day after a state visit to Germany. Russia then began bombing the Kharkiv region from its territory. “We are not escalating this, as it is Russia that is organizing itself in this way”the Head of State had specified, without actually setting a geographical limit to possible deep attacks carried out with French weapons.
There is no doubt that the subject came up during the last telephone conversation between Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron on Thursday 5 September, although the Elysée has no intention of confirming it. The Secretary of the Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, was in Paris the following day, among other things to discuss the subject with his French counterparts.
“Preventing a third world war”
The concern, however, is to avoid a new escalation with Moscow, which would increase the threats. Such a decision “It would mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries are at war with Russia.”argued Vladimir Putin on Thursday. “We must do everything possible to prevent a third world war.”says a French diplomatic source. The hypothesis that the Russians are expanding the scope of the war cannot simply be dismissed.
The Ukrainians are counting on these long-range missiles to disrupt Russian logistics behind the front. This is what they did during the summer of 2022 by deploying the first American Himars rocket launchers, whose range allowed them to reach the Russian rear. “Fifty kilometers behind us were logistics centers, maintenance sites and troops. Today the idea is the same, but the goal is to go further.”“To achieve this, the Ukrainians are seeking to make their attacks more complex by combining different types of weapons: ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones,” said Vincent Tourret, a PhD student at the University of Quebec in Montreal and a research associate at the Foundation for Strategic Research.
You have 24.68% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
