Sun 21 January 2024:
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Thursday that an ammunition shortage is preventing Kyiv from winning on the battlefield.
“The shortage of ammunition and shell starvation is a very urgent problem that our armed forces are currently facing,” Umerov said at the opening of a conference in Paris on the creation of an artillery coalition led by France and the US
Umerov, who spoke via video link, asked Western partners to help Kyiv solve the problem and he called the strengthening of the artillery — potentially one of the key needs of Ukraine’s troops.
He was supposed to personally attend the conference in the French capital but his visit was canceled “for security reasons.”
The Defense Ministry said the trip was postponed “the day before the minister took part in a meeting of the supreme commander’s headquarters.”
A new date for the visit is being worked out, it added.
France to deliver more Caesar artillery systems to Ukraine
Paris is seeking €280 million from Ukraine’s allies to help fund the delivery of 60 out of a planned 78 Caesar self-propelled artillery systems for Kyiv’s military.
The French government says it will send more Ceasar self-propelled artillery systems to Ukraine, while accelerating its national weapons manufacturing.
This strategy announced Thursday is a two-pronged bid to avoid depleting its military stocks while continuing to support Ukraine’s war effort against Russia’s invasion.
Following Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine, France was among countries that quickly released weapons from its own armories to help shore up Ukrainian defenses. As well as Caesars, France has supplied light tanks, long-range cruise missiles, air defense systems and other hardware, support and military training. Combined, French aid is estimated to be worth billions of euros (dollars).
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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