The French Foreign Ministry refused to disclose the number of SCALP missiles supplied to Ukraine

The French Foreign Ministry will not name the exact number of SCALP long-range missiles delivered to Ukraine. This was stated by the deputy spokesman of the French Foreign Ministry, Christophe Lemoine, on November 20.

"Obviously, we know the number of SCALP missiles that we have delivered to the Ukrainians. I can't tell you the exact number, but there were deliveries," he noted on air of LCI TV channel.

Lemoine also stressed that they were supplied to Ukraine because the country "has the right to defense." The foreign ministry spokesman declined to answer a question about whether the supplies were support for strikes on Russian territory.

Earlier, on November 19, the French newspaper Le Monde reported that France had a limited number of SCALP long-range surface-to-air missiles for delivery to Ukraine. According to the newspaper, France provided only 10 missiles out of the 40 announced.

On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the decision of the US authorities to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles for strikes against Russia. On 17 November, The New York Times reported that US President Joe Biden had allegedly allowed Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to strike Russia.

In his turn, the head of the European Union (EU) diplomatic service, Josep Borrel, confirmed that the US administration had lifted restrictions on strikes with 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.

On 18 November, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that the possibility of allowing Ukraine to strike Russian territories with French weapons was being studied. According to him, the matter concerns strikes on facilities from where the Russians carry out aggression against Ukrainian territory.

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 carry it out was made by the Russian president due to the aggravation of the situation in the region due to the increased shelling by Ukrainian troops.