France assures Ukraine of intelligence support amid US assistance halt

French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu said in an interview with the France Inter radio station on Thursday, 6 March that France is offering intelligence to Ukraine after Washington said it was suspending intelligence sharing with Kyiv in an attempt to increase pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"We have intelligence resources that we use to help the Ukrainians," Lecornu said, as quoted by Reuters.

Commenting on the US intelligence sharing with Ukraine, Lecornu said that "it has been suspended since yesterday afternoon".

"I think for our British friends who are in an intelligence community with the United States, it is more complicated," Lecornu said.

Lecornu also said that France's nuclear weapons stockpile, developed at the beginning of the Cold War and designed to be independent of the then-dominant powers of Washington and Moscow, was sufficient.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that France is open to discussing an expansion of the protection its nuclear arsenal provides to European partners in the face of a Russian threat.

Macron was speaking ahead of a summit of European leaders which is expected to focus on Ukraine and defence.