the delivery of combat aircraft not “priority”, according to the chairman of the National Defense Committee

Thomas Gassilloud, Renaissance deputy for the Rhône, chairman of the National Defense Commission, estimated on Monday May 15 on franceinfo that the delivery of combat aircraft to Ukraine was not “priority” and did not correspond “not to the most urgent needs”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a quick visit to several European capitals this weekend. He dined Sunday evening with Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée.

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Following this meeting, the two countries jointly announced that France would train and equip “several battalions with dozens of armored vehicles and light tanks” in the next weeks. Paris will notably deliver AMX-10 RC. “These are tanks that have already proven themselves. They are extremely fast tanks on wheels, with a lot of mobility capabilities and very strong firepower”explained the deputy.

France is also concentrating its “Efforts on supporting the air defense capabilities of Ukraine”, is it underlined in the joint statement. But still no combat planes for kyiv, while Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed this weekend his desire to obtain air means. “It’s extremely long in terms of training, with extremely heavy ground maintenance. When you have a pilot, you have maybe ten or twenty personnel who are needed on the ground. In any case, it does not correspond to the most more urgent”, estimated the deputy Renaissance. Thomas Gassilloud explains that he “is essentially about ground combat” in Ukraine. “Planes are not, in our view, priority things.”