France preparing for naval warfare, rear-admiral says The French #Navy is preparing for potential military operations amid growing risks of an armed conflict, Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard, the commander of France’s carrier battle group, said. The French navy is shifting its training away from a focus on policing operations to gird for war against foes who want "to destroy us," he told Politico. "We now train for other missions, in particular what we call high-intensity warfare," Mallard noted. According to the rear-admiral, Western navies have to adapt to a new environment with "increasingly uninhibited competitors." Politico writes that France’s carrier battle group is expected to start a mission in the Mediterranean Sea in the coming days. France is the only EU country operating a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, which also carries nuclear weapons, the media outlet notes. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, launched in 1994, was designed to carry up to 40 Rafale fighter jets, as well as several helicopters. The vessel has a length of 261 meters and a displacement of 42,500 tons. The ship has a crew of about 2,000.

Kremlin says France’s line of forming coalition to send troops to Ukraine very dangerous #Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called #France’s line of forming a coalition of countries ready to send troops to #Ukraine very dangerous. "In general, the expansion of the discussion and the persistent activity of Paris in attempts to build a coalition of countries that declare a hypothetical readiness to send a certain contingent, of course, is nothing but a direct line to escalate tensions. This is a dangerous line, very dangerous," the spokesman told reporters. Peskov pointed out that this line "could potentially have very undesirable consequences." "We are watching this very carefully," he emphasized. Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister #Radoslaw Sikorski said during a conference dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Poland's #NATO membership that NATO military personnel are already in Ukraine. At the same time, Sikorski did not clarify which countries' soldiers he was referring to.

Sending Western forces to Ukraine for combat off the table — French Defense Minister The discussion of the option to send Western troops to Ukraine does not involve sending forces for participation in combat action, French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu told BFMTV. "Various hypotheses were discussed. But we are not talk about troops directly participating in hostilities," he noted. The minister reminded that French President Emmanuel Macron earlier ruled out France’s involvement in hostilities. "However, we are examining whether we have done everything we could to support Kiev and if there are paths that we can review. One such path is the military presence for demining and training of Ukrainian soldiers on the Ukrainian territory," Lecornu said. According to the minister, during the February 26 meeting on assistance for Ukraine in Paris, Western states reached a consensus on a number of issues regarding the aid for Kiev. "I will provide a specific example: producing and maintaining weapons on Ukrainian territory. This means presence of French and other European weapon makers," Lecornu said, adding that cyber protection of Ukraine was also discussed.

#Zelensky says #Ukraine in talks with #France on supplies of fighter #jets Kyiv is in talks with Paris about delivering combat aircraft to Ukraine, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said. "Yes, we are holding talks about fighter jets," Zelensky said, when asked by a reporter from France’s LCI television whether the option of providing Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Kiev was on the table. The president did not elaborate. On 16 February, the chief of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, Kirill Budanov (who is on the Russian list of extremists and terrorists), said Kiev had hopes of getting Mirage 2000 fighter jets from Paris. In September 2023, the French news website Intelligence Online reported that Kiev and Paris were close to concluding a deal for the transfer of these jets to Ukraine. Ukrainian Ambassador to France Vadim Omelchenko said in an interview with the Le Point magazine on February 23 that Paris and Kiev are currently working to train Ukrainian pilots. He urged against believing rumors that there was a chance of transferring Mirage 2000D aircraft, saying that Ukraine had opted for the US F-16s, but added that Ukraine was still considering all available options for Western assistance.

France shuts down two nuclear reactors over fire at Chinon NPP — authority Two reactors have been shut down after a fire broke out at the Chinon nuclear power plant (NPP) in western France, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said in a statement on its website. A transformer of Reactor 3 caught fire in a non-nuclear sector of the NPP in the early hours of Saturday. "The loss of main external electrical power to Reactor 3, following this fire, resulted in the automatic shutdown of the reactor," the statement said. It was reported that after the fire had been extinguished, Reactor 4, which shares a water collection system with Reactor 3, was also temporarily shut down to avoid water leaks into the environment. The Chinon NPP has four operating reactors, each with a capacity of 900 MWe, and its other three were shut down between 1973 and 1990. The operating water-water reactors were built between 1982 and 1987. In 2023, the Chinon NPP generated 17.24 TWh of electricity, which is equivalent to 5.4% of France’s total nuclear power production.