With Russia's invasion of Ukraine close to entering its third year, the West is trying to make a long-term impact with its aid. France announced on Thursday, January 18, the launch of a coalition to organize and sustain artillery support from Kyiv's allies. Artillery is an essential factor for holding the front line, which has been frozen since the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in the summer of 2023.

The new coalition, which will be led by France and the United States, "aims to coordinate efforts to help Ukraine build artillery forces suitable for the needs of the counteroffensive and its future army, both in the short and long term," according to Paris. French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu was due to officially inaugurate the first meeting of the coalition in Paris on Thursday, in the presence of representatives from 23 countries. His Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov, canceled his visit "for security reasons" and will instead hold the meeting via videoconference.

This new working group is part of the "capability coalitions" decided in October 2023 by the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group (UDCG), also known as the Ramstein group, which coordinates the contributions of Kyiv's 50 or so allied countries. Several of these coalitions have been launched in recent weeks: the United Kingdom and Norway are leading the coalition devoted to maritime armaments, Estonia and Luxembourg the one on information technologies, and the US and the Netherlands the one on air forces.

Paris will also lead, alongside Germany, the coalition on air defense, whose first working meetings took place in Berlin in December. This is not only a way for France to show its support for Ukraine, but also to quell criticism for the supposed weakness of its military aid. "France wanted to be present on critical sections for the Ukrainians," said a French military source.

Although the coalition's countries did not express it this way, the coordination was also created to bring some order to the military aid provided to Kyiv. Constantly on the lookout for new equipment to supply their troops, Ukraine has accepted the transfers proposed by its allies and finds itself at the head of a highly heterogeneous stock – stock that is difficult to maintain and to supply with ammunition. "The idea is to push Ukraine to rationalize its defense system, with equipment that meets NATO standards and is interoperable with our armies," explained a senior French officer.

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