France says will supply Ukraine with dozens of armored vehicles, light tanks

France has pledged to send dozens of armored vehicles and light tanks to Ukraine in line with the West's unbridled support for Kiev in its war with Moscow.

Paris announced the plan in a joint statement on Sunday following a working dinner between the visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris.

The equipment, which include AMX-10RCs fighting vehicles, will be supplied to Ukraine in the coming weeks, the statement noted.

Over the weekend, Zelensky visited several European capitals, pleading for a substantial increase in the continent's already robust military support for Ukraine.

Moscow says it started what it calls a special military operation in order to defend the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev, and also to "de-Nazify" its neighbor.

Russia argues that the West's anti-Russian moves, including its eagerness to include Ukraine in NATO military alliance and the alliance's expansion right up to the Russian borders, forced it to start the war.

The French presidency also indicated in the statement that Paris is concentrating its efforts on shoring up Kiev's air defense capabilities.

Zelensky had earlier secured a three-billion-dollar new military assistance package from Germany over the weekend.

Fanning the flames: Germany plans largest arms shipment to Ukraine

Germany has collected a new package of military equipment for Ukraine worth 2.7 billion euros ($3.0 billion), Berlin

Moscow has warned time and again that providing Kiev with Western weapons and military equipment will only prolong the conflict.

As a means of reassuring its European allies, Zelensky claimed in Germany that Kiev and its allies could make a Russian defeat "irreversible" as early as this year.

The Western allies, however, have so far refused to meet some of Ukraine's needs, including fighter jets.

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