France ramps up weapons production for Ukraine and says Russia is scrutinizing the West's mettle

abcnews.go.com:

France has announced more deliveries of its Caesar artillery system to Ukraine and is accelerating weapons production to avoid depleting its own military stocks while continuing to support the war effort against Russia’s invasion

PARIS — France announced more planned deliveries of its Caesar artillery system to Ukraine on Thursday and accelerating weapons manufacturing as it seeks to avoid depleting its own military stocks while continuing to support the war effort against Russia’s invasion.

“The logic of ceding materiel taken from the armies' stocks is reaching its end,” the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview with Le Parisien. “From now on, the solution is to directly connect French defense industries with the Ukrainian army.”

France also launched a drive to fund the delivery of 78 Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzers to Ukraine this year. Ukraine has already paid for six of the guns itself and France will provide 50 million euros (US$ 54 million) to deliver 12 more, Lecornu said separately in a speech. France is also seeking 280 million euros ($305 million) from other allies of Ukraine to pay for the 60 other Caesars, the minister said.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, speaking by video link, said Russian forces are firing five times more artillery shells, even 10 times more in some places, than Ukrainian forces along the front lines and that stronger artillery “is one of our key needs to win this war.”

“Shortage of ammunition, shell hunger, is a very real and pressing problem," he said.

Lecornu said increased supplies of shells for Ukraine are on their way. From this month, France will supply 3,000 shells for 155 mm guns per month, up from 1,000 shells per month at the start