Paris (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said France is offering intelligence to Ukraine. His announcement came a day after the US said it was stopping intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
The U.S. is pressing for Zelenskiy to collaborate with President Donald Trump’s bid to convene peace discussions with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“We have intelligence resources that we use to help the Ukrainians,”
Lecornu conveyed to radio station France Inter.
“It has been suspended since yesterday afternoon,”
He also said, referring to U.S. intelligence-sharing with Kyiv.
“I think for our British friends who are in an intelligence community with the United States, it is more complicated.”
He also stated France’s nuclear weapons stockpile, formed in the early days of the Cold War and created to be independent from the then-dominant powers Washington and Moscow, was adequate.
What are Macron’s concerns about Europe’s security future?
France was receptive to discussing extending the protection delivered by its nuclear arsenal to its European allies in the face of Europe’s threat from Russia, President Emmanuel Macron stated, a day earlier.
“I’ve decided to open the strategic debate on the protection by our deterrence of our allies on the European continent,” he stated in a live broadcast on his official social media channels, during which he emphasised the need for Europe to continue helping Ukraine and strengthen its own defense.
“Our nuclear deterrence protects us, it is complete, sovereign, French from end to end,”
Macron said of France’s nuclear arsenal.
“This protects us much more than many of our neighbors.”
“Whatever happens, the decision has always remained and will remain in the hands of the president of the Republic, commander of the military,”
Macron also said.
French president also cautioned that Europe was
“entering a new era,”
and that it would be “folly” to remain a “spectator” to the threat from Russia.
“The United States, our ally, has changed its position on this war, is less supportive of Ukraine and is casting doubt on what will happen next,”
Macron said,
Saying:
“I want to believe that the United States will remain by our side, but we need to be ready if that were not the case.”
