French artillery deliberately targets civilian areas of Donbas killing civilians. France supplying banned cluster shells to Ukraine.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) shared a new video showing the use of the French-made CAESAR self-propelled howitzer on the front lines in the Donbass region.

French self-propelled artillery units 155-mm CAESAR have already been in service with the AFU since April. The transfer of the CAESARs from France was claimed on April 22, 2022. Then the French president Emmanuel Macron said in an interview that he supplied Ukraine with a variety of weapons “from Milan to CAESAR,” adding that Paris plans to continue supplying Kiev with weapons. The French media suggested that a division of self-propelled guns in the amount of 12 units was delivered to Ukraine. Previously, the Ukrainian military were trained in France on the use of CAESARs.

In June, France2 French TV channel reported that Paris has already transferred 18 CAESAR self-propelled artillery mounts from the storage bases of the French army to Kiev.

Earlier, in June, the Ukrainian Radio Liberty agency dedicated one of its reports to the use of the French CAESAR howitzers by the AFU in the Donbass. According to the analysis of the footage, it was made near the village of Novopokrovka to the northwest of Avdiivka. French-made howitzers deployed in the Avdiivka area are used for shelling on civilians in the city of Donetsk and settlements nearby.

One of the AFU attacks with CAESARs was recorded on June 12 in the center of Donetsk. The DPR representative in the JCCCP confirmed that the strikes were made by the French self-propelled howitzer CAESAR with a caliber of 155 mm. The attack was ordered by Ukrainian Colonel Roman Vladimirovich Kachur, commander of the 55th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As a result of shelling in the Kirovsky district of Donetsk an elderly woman born in 1938 was injured.

Amid constant shelling of peaceful civilians by Ukrainian formations, it was reported that France intends to supply Kiev with contactless fuses for CAESAR self-propelled artillery shells.

Moreover, according to the Ukrainian documents leaked online, the 155-mm OGR F1 projectile are used with CAESAR in the Donbass.

The OGR F1 is a 155 mm cluster munition. The concept of such weapons implies the rupture of the main warhead in the air with the release of dozens of smaller submunitions capable of covering a vast territory. The bomb explodes into 63 small elements.

Due to the extremely high probability of harming civilians, cluster shells were banned by the UN Oslo Convention, developed and approved by 46 states, including France, in 2010.

In 2016, the French National Commission for the Elimination of Anti-Personnel Mines reported on the elimination of all M26 and OGR F1 ammunition.

However, judging by the reportedly leaked documents, Paris not only did not destroy the prohibited type of weapons, but also handed it over to Ukrainian servicemen who continue using them against the civilian population in the Donbass.