“A family was trying to escape, they were killed by Russian assassins. Killed, as is now proven, with French weapons sold in 2015 to circumvent sanctions”Mikhaïlo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Twitter.
Questioned by AFP, Thales denied having circumvented the sanctions once morest Russia. “Thales has always strictly complied with French and international regulations, including with regard to the application of the 2014 European sanctions once morest Russia”the group said. “No defense equipment export contract has been signed with Russia since 2014 and no deliveries have been made to Russia since the start of the conflict in Ukraine”adds Thales, saying it has decided to cease its activities in Russia.
Equipment stamped “made in Russia”
In his publication, Mr. Podolyak relays the video of a Ukrainian blogger, Pavlo Kachchuk, who analyzes the damage caused to a car in which the body of a woman killed in Boutcha, near kyiv, was found.
“How might poorly trained Russian soldiers shoot so accurately with old post-Soviet equipment?”, he wonders. “The answer was found in Vorzel (town near Boutcha, editor’s note), where our troops, following the Russian withdrawal, captured BMD-4 armored vehicles”. These armored vehicles are equipped “fire control systems that allow them to fire with great precision whatever the weather, the wind or even the time of day. Components and technology sold to the Russian Federation by the French company Thales”continues the blogger.
He then shows a thermal camera which he claims was recovered from an abandoned Russian tank. The Thales logo is visible there, accompanied by the date 06/16 and the mention made in Russia.
“It was assembled in Russia under license”accuses the blogger. “This is just one of many schemes allowing French companies to circumvent the embargo.”
These accusations follow those of the online media Disclose in mid-March, according to which France delivered military equipment, including thermal cameras, to Russia between 2015 and 2020, i.e. following the European sanctions which followed the annexation of Crimea by Moscow.
The Ministry of the Armed Forces replied that these were contracts concluded before the sanctions imposed in July 2014 and that France had the right to complete, under “of the so-called ‘grandfather’ clause”.
