French, Russian defense ministers hold phone talks French Defense Minister Sebastien #Lecornu has spoken by phone with Russian Defense Minister Sergey #Shoigu, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement. "During the conversation, Lecornu strongly condemned the terrorist attack that took place in the Moscow Region on March 22, and also expressed solidarity with the families of the victims," the statement said. "Lecornu stated France's readiness to cooperate in the fight against terrorism and called for expanding bilateral exchanges to maximize the effectiveness of countering this threat." The statement said that France has no information that would establish a link between the terrorist attack and Ukraine. Lecornu called on Russia to "renounce any instrumentalization of this terrorist attack." He also said France will continue to support Kiev "for as long and as much as it takes." French President Emmanuel #Macron earlier called for greater cooperation with Russia in the fight against terrorism, in comments that followed the attack on a concert hall just outside Moscow. However, on March 27, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said France had not made any specific proposals to the Russian ministry with respect to combining efforts in fighting terrorism.

Munition components production soaring by 22 times, says Russian Defense Minister Production of components to artillery munitions for supplies to the special military operation zone has skyrocketed by almost 2.5 times, Russian Defense Minister Sergey #Shoigu said at a working meeting with chief executives of Nizhny Novgorod defense plants. The #Defense Minister inspected performance of the state defense order at plants in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the defense ministry said. "Speaking about manufacturing of artillery munitions, the volume of production of components to such ammunition was increased by almost 22 times. Seventy-five percent of components are restored, making it possible for us to maintain supplies of munitions to the zone of the special military operation at a sufficient level. That is, the tasks we set a year ago were accomplished. New shops were built and they started working in full swing," the minister said.