France has created a fund, initially worth €100 million ($98 million), for Ukraine to directly buy weapons and other materiel it needs in its war against invading Russia, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.
"We are setting up this special, dedicated fund initially with €100 million to allow the acquisition of equipment that we have already delivered and that we will continue to do so in terms of weapons, meaning defensive ones," Macron said after a summit in Prague.
He added that discussions were being held, particularly with Denmark, to deliver more highly accurate CAESAR truck-mounted cannons to Ukraine, on top of the 18 France has already given.
"France has been giving military support to Ukraine from the first day, with anti-tank and individual anti-aircraft systems," Macron said.
The new fund, he said, "will allow... to also work with France's defence industry base" and "demonstrates our will to act as Europeans and to align ourselves with this collective effort" helping Ukraine.
The fund would significantly boost the military support France is showing Ukraine, from the €233 million committed so far, which is a fraction of what some other allies have allocated.
The United States is the biggest military supplier to Ukraine, to the tune of the equivalent of 25 billion euros, while Britain has given some €4 billion worth of weapons and gear, and Poland €1.8 billion worth.
Publicly-known shipments that France has so far made include anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, armoured personnel carriers, fuel, infantry gear and towed artillery cannons -- as well as the 18 prized CAESARs.
The discussions with Denmark would be to see about diverting some CAESAR units Copenhagen had ordered from France.
‘An energy missile’
President Macron’s comments came following a summit on Thursday gathering more than 40 leaders to launch European Political Community.
During an informal meeting as part of the summit EU leaders wrestled on Friday to come up with a plan to tackle soaring energy costs as they struggled with the fallout from Russia's war on Ukraine at a summit in Prague.
The leaders also discussed ways to better protect their critical infrastructure in the wake of leaks from the Russia-Europe Nord Stream gas pipelines that have been blamed on "sabotage".
But it was the sharp disagreements over how to tackle the energy crisis that were the major focus of attention as the 27 nations wrangled over the best plan to try to bring down prices.
Europe is facing an energy crunch as the cost of electricity generation skyrockets because of a massive surge in gas prices caused by Russia turning off the taps.
"Russia has fired an energy missile at the European continent and the world," European Council head Charles Michel said.
Macron said the winter of 2023/2024 will be even harder than the coming winter for Europeans in terms of gas supplies.
Governments across the bloc are scrambling to lower bills for their consumers, but they rely on different sources for their energy and are split over the solutions.
EU executive head Ursula von der Leyen is proposing a "roadmap" of measures to help ease the burden -- including potential moves to cap the price of gas.
However, there is no consensus on how any caps could work and leaders are not set to take a firm decision until a summit in Brussels later this month.
"We will have a lot of work this autumn and winter and it will not be easy," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
