France will send 12 Caesar-mounted howitzers to Ukraine to counter Russian invaders, French Defense Minister Sebastien Le Cornou said on Tuesday.
Lecornu told a joint news conference in Paris with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Oleksiy Reznikov that the cannons, together with the 18 already delivered, will be part of a 200 million-euro ($217 million) project established by France. ) fund, which supplied arms to Kiev.
Along with other Western-supplied mobile artillery such as Germany’s Panzerhaubitze 2000, the Kaiser cannon was also credited last year for helping Ukraine strike targets deep within Russian lines, undercutting Moscow’s offensive.
The truck-mounted 155mm gun can fire highly accurate salvos at ranges of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) and shift positions before the enemy can locate them and return fire.
Le Cornou said the new batch of howitzers will be delivered in the next few weeks.
Denmark has also pledged its entire fleet of 19 powerful French-made howitzers to the Ukrainian war.
As of early December, France was Ukraine’s seventh-biggest backer since the start of the war, according to military and financial aid data collated by the Germany-based Institute for World Economics think-tank — before taking into account a major military announcement last month.
But European donors still fall well short of U.S. military aid pledges.
