► France will double, to 2,000 per month, deliveries of shells to Ukraine
France will double the number of 155 mm shells delivered to Ukraine, bringing them to 2,000 per month, announced the Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu in an interview with Le Figaro published on Tuesday 28 March.
Paris will “deliver land equipment necessary for Ukraine’s counter-offensive: we are thus doubling the delivery of 155 mm shells to bring it to 2,000 per month from the end of March”, he said. affirmed in a joint interview with the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.
The 155 mm shells, fired in particular by the French Caesar guns or the German PzH 2000 and with a range of up to 40 kilometres, are fired every day in industrial quantities by both the Russians and the Ukrainians.
► The first British Challenger tanks have arrived in Ukraine
The first British Challenger tanks have arrived in Ukraine to help the Kiev army repel the Russian invasion, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksy Reznikov announced Monday evening.
Oleksy Reznikov said that “British Challengers, American Strykers and Cougars and German Marders” had “added to the Ukrainian units”. A spokeswoman for the ministry, Iryna Zolotar, confirmed that the Challenger tanks “are already in Ukraine”, without giving the exact number at this stage.
► Ukraine has deployed long-range US rockets, according to Moscow
The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that it shot down a long-range American rocket GLSDB, the first confirmation that these munitions have been delivered to Ukraine, which considers them crucial to launch its next counter-offensive.
“The anti-aircraft defense (…) shot down 18 rockets of the Himars system and one guided rocket GLSDB,” the ministry said in its daily statement about these bombs with a range of up to 150 km, promised to Kiev by the United States in early February.
► Belarus confirms the installation of Russian nuclear weapons
Belarus will welcome Russian “tactical” nuclear weapons in response to “unprecedented” Western “pressure”, the Belarusian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The country is “forced to take response measures”, assures the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while ensuring that Minsk will not have control over these weapons and that their deployment “does not in any way contradict Articles I and II of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.