Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umierov has cancelled his trip to France at the last moment, citing “security considerations,” and will participate in the planned events online.

Source: Le Monde, citing the French Defence Ministry’s official statement, available to the editorial staff.

Details: The statement that reached the media in the evening mentions that Umierov cancelled the scheduled trip on 18 January “due to security considerations” and will join the events with his French counterpart, Sébastien Lecornu, via video conferencing.

During Umierov’s visit, an “artillery coalition” was expected to be announced within the Ramstein-format meeting, involving 20 states led by France and the USA.

Lecornu and Umierov had planned to visit one of the facilities of arms maker Nexter in Bourges, where self-propelled howitzers including the CAESAR are produced, as well as the MBDA missile factory. The detailed program of the visit was published for the media on 15 January.

Background:

• As is known, Ukraine received 18 self-propelled artillery units Caesar from France, and Paris has already been able to partially replenish its artillery systems stock – thanks to the arrival of previously ordered howitzers.

• The creation of the artillery coalition and its launch were announced in December, with the implementation set for January.

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