France to provide long-range missiles to Ukraine
France has decided to deliver long-range missiles to Ukraine to support the counteroffensive, said French President Emmanuel Macron at the NATO summit in Vilnius.
These will most likely be the Franco-British Storm Shadow cruise missiles (the French name is SCALP EG), which were previously delivered to Ukraine by the United Kingdom.
Germany, in turn, will deliver Leopard 1 battle tanks, Marder infantry fighting vehicles, Patriot air defense missile launchers and missiles to Ukraine. A new aid package worth 700 million euros will be presented at the summit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung, citing sources. The new package will include two launchers of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems from the arsenal of the Bundeswehr, 25 Leopard tanks, 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
In May, Macron announced France's intention to supply Ukraine with long-range SCALP-EG missiles. Before that, the UK sent Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine. These were the first and only long-range missiles provided to Ukraine at that time. The flight range of the export version of the Storm Shadow is more than 250 km. For the first time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used these missiles on May 12 during a strike on occupied Luhansk. Military experts and analysts of the Conflict Intelligence Team assumed that the transfer of long-range missiles to Ukraine could change the course of the war.