The Sovfed criticized the words of the French Foreign Minister about support for Ukraine

The head of the Federation Council's commission on information policy, Alexei Pushkov, said on November 24 that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot clearly lacks intelligence since he calls for not observing "red lines" in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and threatens that Paris is considering sending French troops to Ukraine.

"What is shocking is not even so much his aggressiveness as his apparent lack of intelligence. This is characteristic, alas, of the vast majority of the new generation of liberal European politicians, who know nothing about the war, who do not remember World War II, who do not know history, who are poorly educated, who grew up on ultra-liberal slogans and stamps and proceed from these stamps when making decisions," Pushkov wrote in his Telegram channel.

The day before, Barro said in an interview with the BBC that Ukraine could launch French SCALP long-range missiles at Russia. According to the channel, Barrot, in talks with his British counterpart David Lammy, also said that Western allies should not limit support for Ukraine in the fight against Russia and "should not set and mark red lines." Asked whether this could mean French troops taking part in the fighting, he said that no option could be ruled out.

In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called such a decision "not supporting but pushing Ukraine".

Earlier, on November 21, Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said that the French Foreign Ministry would not name the exact number of SCALP long-range missiles delivered to Ukraine. Lemoine also stressed that they had been delivered to Ukraine because the country "has the right to defense".

Before that, 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 40 announced. At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the decision of the US authorities to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike Russia.

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 taken by Russia because of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to the increased shelling by Ukrainian troops.