 French Navy prepares for war. The main focus is on Russia. France has shifted its naval posture from intercepting drug traffickers and poachers to training for a conventional war. Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard has told Politico. Mallard commands France's only carrier battle group built around the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle. He spoke about the changes in an interview with the EU edition of Politico. We're moving from a world where we were pretty free to do as we pleased to one where we feel threatened on a more regular basis. Mallard said, We now train for other missions in particular, what we call high-intensity warfare. Naval combat is becoming increasingly likely, he said, and the French sailors now practice fighting against someone who wants to destroy us, not someone who wants to do illegal trafficking, not someone who wants to steal fish. With the Russian Navy engaged in the Black Sea and the Houthis of Yemen interdicting vessels linked to Israel, the US and the UK in the Red Sea, Western navies need to deal with increasingly uninhibited competitors. Mallard said, That's where we become a little more aggressive or at least we prepare to be, added the Admiral. According to Mallard, the French and Italian navies will engage in a joint exercise later this spring based on the Polaris program that simulates a naval battle. Introduced in 2021, the combat simulation works to disinhibit tactical thinking, which Mallard described as a bit more risky but very useful. While the Admiral did not name the expected army, he made it clear it was not the people's Liberation Army Navy. As long as the Chinese haven't invaded the island of La Reunion or decided to kick us off the island of Mayotte, he said, naming two French territories in the Indian Ocean, there's no reason to single out the Chinese as our main adversary. Mallard's comments come after weeks of French President Emmanuel Macron floating the idea of potentially having NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine. The possibility was outright rejected by most, though not all, members of the US-led bloc. Russia used its new KH-69 cruise missiles to destroy the Tripelsk thermal power plant near Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday. According to Defense Express website, fragments of this missile have been found near the site of the destruction. KH-69 is a subsonic cruise missile for tactical aircraft, which can be used with Su-34 and Su-35 fighters. The missiles were fired at the range of about 400 kilometers. Despite the fact that KH-69 missile is subsonic and has a smaller warhead than the hypersonic KH-47M2 Kinsel, the use of the KH-69 to strike Tripelské raises an alarm. Defense Express noted that the destruction of Tripelské power plant indicates that KH-69 cruise missiles can penetrate the obviously exhausted Ukrainian air defense. At the same time, the range of the use of this missile of 400 kilometers is sufficient to hit a significant number of objects on Ukraine's territory from tactical aircraft, which may well approach the border or the front line at a range of 50 to 70 kilometers. KH-69 was first used in in February 2024, although there were isolated cases of there being used in early 2023. The attack on Tripelské on Thursday did not cause any casualties. The attack has not resulted in power cuts in Kyiv or other regions supplied by Tripelské, either. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as terror, reiterating his earlier calls for more arms supplies to his country. We need air defense and other defense support, not eye-closing, and long discussions, Zelensky said and accused the West of turning a blind eye to his country's need for more air defenses. Footage shared on social media showed fire raging from the building in black smoke. The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the strike was in response to Ukraine's earlier attacks on Russia's oil and gas infrastructure. Ukraine's Air Force said it struck 18 incoming Russian missiles and 39 drones. According to the Air Force, Russia also fired six hypersonic Kinsel missiles, none of which they were able to down. According to Centro-Nergo Energy Company, Tripelské thermal power plant was completely destroyed during the attack. A black day in the history of Centro-Nergo. The scale of the destruction is terrible. Money can't estimate it. This is the biggest challenge for us in the history of the company, the company said in a statement.