France will deliver to Ukraine a new batch of around 40 SCALP long-range cruise missiles as well as hundreds of bombs as Kyiv fights the Russian invasion, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.
Macron told reporters at a news conference that Europe’s priority must be to “not let Russia win,” announcing he would make a new visit to the Ukrainian capital in February.
“Letting Russia win would mean accepting that international law is not respected,” he said.
Macron said that France was working on a new bilateral security agreement with Ukraine — along the lines of a pact agreed between Kyiv and London — that would be announced during his February visit.
The SCALP is capable of striking targets far into the country’s Russian-occupied east, well behind front lines that have remained relatively fixed for months.
He said “some 40” more SCALP missies would be delivered along with “several hundreds” of bombs.
The first consignment of the weapons was delivered by France to Ukraine in the summer, though it was never clear how many had been delivered.
Analysts have said the West must keep up and even increase military support to Ukraine if it is to prevent Russia gaining the upper hand in the almost two-year conflict.
