French President Emmanuel Macron said "we must speak with prudence", as he responded to earlier comments by U.S. President Joe Biden in which Biden said there was a risk of nuclear "Armageddon" in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We must speak with prudence when commenting on such matters," Macron told reporters at the end of a European Union summit in Prague.
Biden had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had brought the world closer to "Armageddon" than at any time since the Cold-War Cuban Missile Crisis.
France has created a fund, initially worth 100 million euros ($98 million), for Ukraine to directly buy weapons and other materiel it needs in its war against invading Russia, President Emmanuel Macron said.
"We are setting up this special, dedicated fund initially with 100 million euros to allow the acquisition of equipment that we have already delivered and that we will continue to do so in terms of weapons, meaning defensive ones," Macron said.
He added that discussions were being held, particularly with Denmark, to deliver more highly accurate CAESAR truck-mounted cannons to Ukraine, on top of the 18 it has already given.
Emmanuel Macron said that Nordic leaders had told their European partners it was still impossible to say at this stage who was behind attacks on the NordStream pipeline which had caused gas leaks.
He added that French infrastructure such as pipelines, cables and satellites were points of vulnerability and needed to be reinforced in the current context of geopolitical tension.
