2023-09-28 06:08:38
The announcement could initially surprise you. This Friday, September 29, a “Defense Industries Forum” will be held in kyiv. An arms fair, where foreign manufacturers are invited, in a country in the middle of war and a significant part of whose territory is invaded by Russia, is indeed unusual. Experts are, of course, not expecting a major Paris Air Show-style fair, but all the same, important suppliers are expected to make the trip to Ukraine.
Starting with the French. The Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, is leading a delegation of around twenty defense industrialists to kyiv this Thursday. Among them are the manufacturer of the famous Caesar cannon, flagship groups of missile technology, crucial in defense against Russian air attacks, as well as manufacturers of armored vehicles, etc. Four French parliamentarians are also on the trip.
The challenge for Zelensky is to move towards a logic of on-site arms production
For Paris, the gesture is important, at a time when the Ukrainians could begin to doubt, sometimes, the solidity and, above all, the durability of the support of their allies. Between the opinions that are growing tired, the bickering that appears here and there (like between Kiev and Warsaw over the sale of Ukrainian cereals), the questions from the armies who are seeing their stocks of equipment that they themselves need for their own defense, the risk of wear and tear is there. Now, everyone agrees, this war will last.
The whole challenge for President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom the French Minister of the Armed Forces is expected to meet in kyiv, is to move, from now on, to a logic of production on site. Whether it’s weapons that are (relatively) quick to manufacture, for example drones or artillery, or spare parts, like for the Caesar cannons, in short, everything that Ukrainian fighters need and that Westerners don’t. can take infinitely. The objective of Sébastien Lecornu’s trip is to concretely help with this new phase. And to show that France will not abandon Ukraine to Putin.
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