Inside Putin’s war chest bought from EU – with tank tech that ‘may have blitzed Ukrainian nuclear plant’
VLADIMIR Putin's deadly war chest that is arming Russian troops to blast Ukrainian cities was built up by EU countries - including tank technology that may have been used to help blitz Europe's biggest nuclear plant.
Lethal weapons and machinery such as missiles, aircraft and rockets were flogged to Moscow by ten EU states in the years leading up to Russia unleashing its bloody invasion on Ukraine - despite an arms embargo.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of military kit shipped to Russia from 2015 and 2020 helped Putin modernise his forces - and the weapons are now being used by his troops slaughtering Ukrainians.
Around 1,000 thermal-imaging cameras for tanks were among the arsenal supplied to Moscow from France - and it's feared the tech may have been used to attack Europe's biggest nuclear power station in the city of Zaporizhzhia on March 4.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of unleashing "nuclear terror", and claimed Putin wanted a repeat of the Chernobyl disaster as a building at the site caught fire as a result of shelling.
"Russian tanks are shooting at the nuclear blocks. These are tanks equipped with thermal imagers, so they know what they are aiming at," he said.
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According to investigative website , it's possible the cameras bear the names of French aerospace and defence companies Thales and Safran, which the French state has major stakes in.
It's reported some 121 Catherine XP thermal imaging cameras were due to be sent to the "Russian army" in May 2016 - with the deliveries not stopped.
By 2020, the two companies had sold some 800 cameras to Moscow, according to the outlet.
The cameras were installed in three different types of Russian tanks - the T-72, the T-90 and the T-80BVM, which are now being used in Ukraine.
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Despite the EU imposing an embargo on weapon sales, Disclose reports that between 2015 and 2020, France issued 76 export licences to Russia for military equipment.
EU states, including then-member Britain, hit Russia with a weapons embargo in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea.
But a loophole allowed countries and firms to fulfil contracts they had previously signed with Russia.
And a probe by Investigate Europe shows EU27 states issued more than 1,000 licences after the ban.
France went on to flog £130million of military kit to the Kremlin, Germany sold £100million and Italy made £19million.
Out of the ten, France reportedly accounted for 44 per cent of sales, with aircraft, torpedoes and missiles among the equipment sent.
Navigation systems were also sold to Moscow - equipping many of Putin's jets with the latest French technology used in its own Rafale jet fighters.
Deliveries of navigation systems and cockpit display screens and viewfinders from Thales were staggered until 2018 after a contract was signed in 2014, reports Disclose.
They were installed in 60 of Russia's SU-30 fighter jets - which could be among warplanes being used to relentlessly bombard Ukrainian cities as they are able to carry eight tonnes of missiles.
Jets including at least two SU-30s have been downed by Ukrainian forces as they tirelessly fight to defend their country.
Thales also sent navigation systems to equip MiG-29 fighters as well as around 20 'Topowl' helmets which feature infrared screens, it's reported.
It's unclear whether MiG-29 jets are being used in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Berlin sold what it called "dual-use equipment" including rifles, "special protection" vehicles and icebreaker vessels and Rome provided armoured cars.
In 2015, Italy authorised the sale of Lynce military all-terrain vehicles to Moscow - which have been seen in Ukraine since the war began by Italian TV channel La7.
Figures from the EU Council Working Party on Conventional Arms Exports reveal the ten EU states exported military equipment worth a total of £291million to Russia between 2015 and 2020.
It comes as Putin's troops continue to press their deadly assault on major cities, with Russia expanding its missile strikes to Lviv, in the west of Ukraine.
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Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said several missiles hit a facility for repairing military planes near the city's international airport and also damaged a bus repair site.
Shelling around the capital of Kyiv also continued as the number of refugees estimated to have fled exceeded 3.4 million.
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