Media reported on France's limited number of SCALP missiles

France has a limited number of long-range SCALP surface-to-air missiles for delivery to Ukraine. The French newspaper Le Monde quoted its sources as saying on 19 November.

According to the newspaper, France has provided the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) with 10 SCALP missiles out of 40 declared missiles.

According to the interlocutor, France is discussing with Britain the delivery of these missiles (the British analog Storm Shadow - Ed.) to the Ukrainian army because London has more of them.

Range deadline: what could change U.S. authorization for strikes deep inside Russian Federation

How the current events will affect the course of the conflict in Ukraine and Russia's response to it

The day before, the head of the European Union (EU) diplomatic service, Josep Borrel, confirmed that the US administration had lifted restrictions on strikes by US missiles at a distance of up to 300 kilometers deep into Russian territory. At the same time, Deputy National Security Advisor to the US President John Feiner did not confirm that Washington had given such authorization to Kiev. The official emphasized that the White House in making its decisions proceeds from the situation on the battlefield. Later it became known that French President Emmanuel Macron positively assessed the decision of the US authorities to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike Russia.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova emphasized that Kiev's possible use of long-range missiles for such purposes would receive an "adequate and tangible" response. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitriy Peskov, commenting on Ukraine's possible authorization to use ATACMS for strikes on Russian territory, said that such a move by the USA would become a qualitatively new round of tension.

For his part, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called the remaining months of US leader Joe Biden's presidential term the most dangerous in recent decades. According to him, authorizing Kiev to strike with American weapons deep into Russia creates the danger of a world war. In such an outcome, Western countries would lose everything.

Ukraine's allies do not expect that the U.S. permission to strike with long-range weapons deep into Russia will radically change the balance of forces on the battlefield,Gazeta.Ruadded, citing Bloomberg. According to the agency's interlocutors, officials do not believe that the U.S. decision now will change the balance in the conflict, in which Ukrainian troops have been losing ground in recent months.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine amid Russia's special operation to defend Donbass, which began on February 24, 2022. The decision to conduct it was made by the Russian president because of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to the increased shelling by Ukrainian troops.