At a gathering of EU defence ministers, military personnel from the US and NATO, as well as business leaders, Macron stated that the system is “protecting key installations and lives” on Monday.
He continued, “It really is Europe protecting Europe,” alluding to his rejection of a German plan to build an anti-missile defence system for Ukraine using supplies from the US and Israel.
Ukraine received two American-made Patriot air defence systems at the end of April.
For the French presidency, announcing the deployment of the SAMP/T Mamba shows that there is an alternative.
Ukrainian troops completed training in March on the SAMP/T Mamba medium-range surface-to-air system, which includes radar and eight Aster missile launchers, with a range of about 100 kilometres.
The system is intended to help Ukraine counter Russian drone and plane attacks.
Earlier in May, Ukraine Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said that air defense systems like the SAMP/T or Patriot were needed to protect against large-scale ballistic missile attacks.
A Mamba system is already deployed in Romania to protect the strategic Black Sea port of Constanta.