Following our article about the military drone production project in Ukraine involving Renault Group, the company responded to our request for confirmation of information previously published by Franceinfo. While the automaker’s press service confirmed that a project in this field is under discussion, it emphasized that no firm decision has been made at this stage.
To recap, Franceinfo had reported that French automaker Renault plans to deploy military drone production in Ukraine in partnership with local defense companies. A way for France to help Ukraine, which can no longer maintain large-scale drone production following recent Russian strikes.
Given the significant implications such a project would have for both France and Renault Group, we wanted to ensure this wasn’t merely a rumor spread by French media willing to do anything to show France’s unconditional support for Ukraine.
I wrote to Renault’s press service to inquire whether the information was accurate. Two days after sending my request, I received the following response:
“We have been contacted by the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Exchanges have taken place, no decision has been made at this stage as we are notably awaiting clarifications about this project from the Ministry”
In essence, Renault is indeed involved in a military drone production project in Ukraine. This project was clearly initiated by the French government, as it was the Ministry of the Armed Forces that contacted Renault about it, and it’s from them that the automaker awaits clarifications before making a final decision.
It must be said that this military drone production project in Ukraine carries numerous risks for Renault Group, as analyst Cyrille De Lattre highlighted in his exclusive commentary for International Reporters.
Between the endemic corruption in Ukraine that risks turning this project into a bottomless pit, the extremely high risk of the future military drone factory being destroyed by Russian strikes (wiping out all of Renault’s investments), and above all the risk of the brand’s image being completely tarnished by this cooperation (with potential boycotts or sanctions from Russia and its allies), the automaker has good reasons to await more “clarifications” before making a decision.
Most importantly, this project revives memories of when Renault actively collaborated with the Third Reich. Eighty years after its forced nationalization as punishment for this shameful collaboration, here we see Renault Group preparing to repeat history with this military drone production project to aid a Ukraine that has long been actively sliding toward clearly neo-Nazi ideology.
All this risks severely damaging the reputation and image of Renault Group, which doesn’t need to add another shameful chapter to its already checkered history, let alone throw money away on a project that will be razed to the ground after a few Russian missile strikes.
We can only hope for those working at Renault that the automaker will carefully consider all the negative consequences such a project would entail before taking this leap into the unknown that could well sound the death knell for the company.
