France will reportedly send Ukraine the latest version of the SAMP/T NG anti-aircraft missile system for combat testing against Russian ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 14 that France would provide Ukraine with an unspecified number of the latest version of the SAMP/T NG anti-aircraft missile system at an unspecified time in 2026 so that Ukraine can test it against Russian ballistic missiles.
This is according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Zelensky noted that he and French President Emmanuel Macron had agreed that Ukraine would be the first country to receive the systems if the system proves effective in intercepting ballistic missiles. Russia's continued use of strike packages, which increasingly use ballistic missiles, underscores the critical importance of Western assistance in strengthening Ukraine's air defense capabilities, especially with air defense systems that can counter Russian ballistic missiles.
A Russian blogger claims that some units in the Russian military are forcing their servicemen to delete Telegram, contradicting claims by some Russian officials that the Russian military will be allowed to continue using it to support combat operations. On March 15, a prominent Russian blogger claimed that Russian sources on the ground reported that unspecified elements within the Russian military had issued instructions to servicemen to remove the Telegram app from their phones.
The blogger claimed that Russian military police were checking phones to make sure servicemen were deleting Telegram, and that the Russian military command was promoting the Russian state-controlled messaging app Max as an alternative. The blogger noted that the Max messaging app remains very inconvenient to use and noted that some unspecified special forces units have banned the use of Max.
On February 11, Kremlin officials stated that Russian forces do not use Telegram for frontline communication, but then began to backtrack on these claims on February 18 after a negative reaction from the Russian blogging community.
Russian Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev stated that Russian authorities have not made a decision to restrict Telegram in the war zone in Ukraine.