Scandal! Video from Bucha proves that the French company Thales supplied Russia with its Catherine FC thermal imagers for the BMD-4M

By: Anry Sergeev | 22.04.2022, 19:50

Pavel Kashchuk, known as project founder infocar.ua  and host of the eponymous YouTube channel  posted on it a video taken after the release of Bucha from rashist occupiers. It demonstrates not just traces of war crimes with the killing of civilians, but also equipment abandoned by the retreating troops, in which French-made thermal imagers were found, supplied by the company Thales Group  after the imposition of sanctions against Russia.

The video begins with a demonstration of a cemetery of civilian vehicles brought to one place in Bucha. Pavel draws attention to the holes from the 30-mm cannon in the door of the Renault Sandero (in Europe the car is sold as Dacia Sandero) and their accuracy, despite the fact that the shots were fired from a long distance.

This 30 mm gun is mounted on BMD-4M  (airborne combat vehicle), which entered service with the Russian army in 2016 (that is, after the introduction of sanctions prohibiting the supply of dual-use equipment to Russia). One of these BMD-4M was abandoned by the retreating Russian troops in Bucha:

The modernization of the BMD-4M consists precisely in the installation of equipment for the gunner, including a sight stabilized in two planes, which has thermal imaging and rangefinding channels. It is this equipment that allows the vehicle to conduct aimed fire at any time of the day in any weather.

The equipment removed from the BMD-4M indicates a violation by Thales Group of the ban on the supply of dual-use equipment (that is, one that can be used for military purposes).

The Thales logo is indicated on the dismantled airborne combat vehicle equipment

In particular, a thermal imager is used, allowing the shooter to see the target in the dark, Catherine F.C. produced by this company. “It is allegedly assembled at a Russian factory in Vologda. That is, according to French drawings from components purchased from the French,” Kashchuk says in the video. “And this is just one of the schemes allowing Western companies to bypass the embargo and continue to supply the Russian army of evil with the most modern military technologies.”

According to the specifications, the Catherine FC thermal imager (pay attention to the production date - June 2016) allows you to create an image with a resolution of 768x576 pixels and works at a distance of up to 2.5 kilometers. The module itself weighs less than 3 kilograms with dimensions of 258x172x100 mm and has a military standard certification MIL STD 810.

About Thales Group

The Thales Group (pronounced "Tales") traces its history back to 1892 and was called Thomson-CSF until 2010 and is named after the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus. Its headquarters is located in the suburbs of Paris Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. It employs about 68,000 people in more than 50 countries around the world. In 2011, the company's turnover was €13 billion. Fortune magazine included it in the list of the 500 largest global companies, placing it at 475th place. Thales Group is ranked 11th in the world among the companies involved in the supply of military equipment. Since December 2014, Thales Group has been headed by Patrice Kane (Patrice Caine), who is also on the boards of directors of Naval Group (since 2015) and L'Oréal (since 2018) and has awards - a bronze medal of national defense and the Order of Merit, and is also a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

The fact that 27.1% of the company's shares are owned by the French government casts a shadow over the whole country, which looks like a sponsor of terrorism, supporting Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. 

For those who want to know more