France and Germany armed Russia with €273 million worth of military hardware now being used in Ukraine, an EU analysis has revealed.
Just last year, the EU sold Russia weapons and ammunition worth €39 million as the Kremlin prepared for its invasion of Ukraine.
They sent equipment, which included bombs, rockets, missiles and guns, to Moscow despite an EU-wide embargo on arms shipments to Russia, introduced in the wake of its 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The European Commission was this month forced to close a loophole in its blockade after it was found that at least 10 member states exported almost €350 million in hardware to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Some 78 per cent of that total was supplied by German and French firms.
Alongside bombs, rockets and torpedoes, French firms sent thermal imaging cameras for more than 1,000 Russian tanks as well as navigation systems for fighter jets and attack helicopters.
The EU report followed probes last month into Europe’s worst offenders for weapons exports to Russia by Disclose and Investigate Europe, two investigative news websites.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/22/exclusive-france-germany-evaded-arms-embargo-sell-weapons-russia/