France to miss €3 billion aid pledge to Ukraine in 2024 - French Defense Minister
Photo: Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Defense of France (Getty Images)
France will not be able to provide Ukraine with the promised €3 billion in aid for 2024 due to a budget deficit, stated French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, according to Politico.
"Politically it was decided at the beginning of 2024 that this aid could reach €3 billion. In reality, we will be above €2 billion but not at €3 billion,” Lecornu said.
The decision to allocate up to €3 billion in aid to Ukraine in 2024 was formalized in a bilateral security agreement between Kyiv and Paris, which Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron signed in February.
However, as Politico reports, France has been forced to reduce spending on assistance to Ukraine due to a projected budget deficit of around 6% of the country's GDP for 2024.
The French Defense Minister noted that there will be no request for additional funding for Ukraine's assistance from Parliament by the end of the year. Approximately €300 million in military aid will be provided from frozen Russian assets, which will be used to purchase 155mm artillery shells, Caesar self-propelled howitzers, and fuel.
Additionally, between €400 million and €600 million will be obtained through reduced inflation and will be directed towards modernizing SCALP and Aster missiles for Ukraine.
French support for Ukraine
France has been actively providing military assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war. In particular, Paris has been supplying long-range SCALP missiles to Ukrainian defenders.
Currently, the most pressing issue is the use of such missiles for strikes deep into Russian territory by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, the French authorities have not yet decided to allow Ukraine to use SCALP missiles in this manner.
Recently, the media reported that Ukraine could receive 20 upgraded Mirage 2000-5F aircraft from France.
