France sells illiquid military equipment to Yerevan

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, commenting at a briefing today on the delivery of French "Bastion" armoured vehicles to Armenia, said that France sold illiquid military equipment to Yerevan, with Paris sending it to Yerevan because it could not sell it elsewhere, Azernews reports.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that arguments that the supply of such equipment to Armenia would benefit the country's security seem naive:

"This armoured equipment has shown very low efficiency in real combat conditions."

As a reminder, on 14 November, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a telephone conversation with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that he would not participate in the CSTO meeting on 23 November.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan said that they would not participate in the CSTO Minsk meeting.

We shall remind you that Ukraine refused the Bastion armoured vehicles sent by France because of weak protection. The French publication "Ouest France" published an article a few days ago saying that these unusable vehicles were sent to Armenia. "These vehicles were originally intended for Ukraine, but Kyiv considered that these vehicles have poor protection against artillery fire and anti-tank missiles," Ouest France said.

We would like to add that Yerevan received the first batch of military aid from France. The first batch of armoured vehicles for the Armenian army is already being delivered to the country via Georgia.

It should be noted that Bastion armoured vehicles were originally developed for French troops in former colonial countries of Africa. And now France is looking for any way to get rid of this equipment.