French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning to Russia that “winning” the war in Ukraine and “limits” to aid for Ukraine would be akin to “choosing defeat” appears to be centered around producing more CAESAR self-propelled guns (SPG) for Kyiv.
The platform units sent to Kyiv so far have failed to bring about any significant battlefield advantage and have been significantly damaged by Russian fire. Moscow has claimed to have destroyed three units since March 10.
The new French plan to manufacture new CAESAR guns for Kyiv also indicates that the West has embraced Russia’s’ long war’ doctrine and is preparing for a long haul of its own.
The war might not end anytime soon, given the fact that US and Europe are reviving their underinvested defense industries. They have been unable to meet Ukraine’s massive hunger for tens of thousands of artillery rounds a week — numbers that their arms factories could only produce in a month.
What Macron Said
In an interview on French TV, Macron said, “If the situation should deteriorate, we would be ready to make sure that Russia never wins that war. (Anybody advocating) limits (on aid to Ukraine) chooses defeat.”
He said it was important for Europe not to draw red lines, which would signal weakness to the Kremlin and encourage it to continue its invasion of Ukraine. He refused to give details on what a deployment to Ukraine might look like. “I have reasons not to be precise. I’m not going to give (Putin) visibility,” he said.
Other accounts quoted him as admitting that the French “defense industry is not equipped for high-intensity war.” He pointed out, “But we have increased our production capacity by three times. We will also produce weapons in Ukraine, closer to the front.”
In this context, he mentioned the production of CAESAR SPGs: “The authority of the EU will be zero if Russia wins the war. I can’t believe Putin will stop after Ukraine. We will produce about 75 CAESAR guns. They will all go to the Ukrainian Front.”
French-Danish Plan to Produce More CAESAR SPGs
According to a recent press release from the Scandinavian country, these guns are likely to be produced in collaboration with the Danish government. On March 12, the Danes announced the allocation of the “16th package of Danish military assistance” to Ukraine, amounting to DKK 2.3 billion ($338 million).
The package will involve money going into the “Ukraine Fund.” This will be to finance the production and supply of 155-mm/52-caliber CAESAR self-propelled howitzers “in collaboration with France.” The Danes will also reportedly produce 120-mm “self-propelled mortars” and 155-mm artillery shells “in cooperation with Estonia and the Czech Republic.”
“It requires great political and economic will if Europe is to deliver on its ambitions for support for Ukraine. This particularly applies to artillery ammunition. With this donation package, we are showing Ukraine and our European allies that Denmark has the will and ability to continue our support for Ukraine for as long as necessary. I hope that more countries will follow suit and contribute to the opportunities being realized as soon as possible,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said.
Russia Keeps Busting CAESARS
Russia TV (RT) on March 12 said on its Telegram channel, quoting the Russian Internal Security and Intelligence Service, FSB, that a CAESAR SPG was among 100 enemy personnel, six tanks, and 20 armored vehicles that were destroyed.
This while trying to “repel” Ukrainian “saboteur attempts” in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions. Izvestia said that FSB operatives were jointly working with Russia’s Ministry of Defense (RuMOD) on the “operation.”
On March 10, the RuMoD released a statement from the spokesperson of the Zapad (West) Group of Forces giving an overview of a series of tactical engagements with the Ukrainians in the “Kupyansk direction.”
A massive “counter-battery fight” comprised the encounters that saw two “French-made CAESAR self-propelled artillery mounts” destroyed alongside a series of other American, Soviet-origin, and European artillery systems.
These involved a “Czech-made Vampire Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) combat vehicle,” a “Gvozdika self-propelled artillery mount,” a “D-30 howitzer,” and “a US-made M101 gun.”
Separately, Zapad troops “in cooperation with aviation and artillery, repelled four attacks by assault groups of the 32nd mechanized and 57th motorized infantry brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the village of Sinkovka, Kharkiv region. Enemy losses amounted to up to 30 military personnel, two infantry fighting vehicles, and two pickup trucks.
- The author can be reached at satamp@gmail.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
