Romania pays inflated prices for French weapons, which it then delivers to Ukraine free of charge, according to a false narrative promoted in sovereignist circles.
NEWS: "To date, another very useful contract has been finalized by the USRist Moș Teanu, before his resignation for falsifying his CV: some 250 Mistral missile defense systems from the French, for the sum of 560 million euros, of which two-thirds will be donated to Ukraine. It is said that the list price of such a missile is 600,000 Euro, but the price "negotiated" by Moș Teanu was 2.7 million Euro. It's as if those missiles were delivered in Louis Vuitton bags." – Gheorghe Piperea
“Romania pays 5.47 million Euro for a single Piranha 5 armored vehicle. On the international market, the same vehicle is valued at approximately 2 million Euro.
This means that the Romanian state is agreeing to pay almost three times more for the same product, without clearly explaining to citizens why there is such a huge difference. Especially at a time when we are told daily that there is no money for hospitals, education, pensions, or essential public investments.
With a total of 139 transporters, we are talking about hundreds of millions of euros extra paid out of the Romanians’ pockets. Money that disappears into a non-transparent contract, while people are asked to make sacrifices and told that austerity is inevitable." – Dorin Silviu Petrea
NARRATIVE: Romania buys weapons from France at inflated prices to donate them to Ukraine
PURPOSE: To promote the sovereignist discourse and anti-French and anti-Ukrainian propaganda, to decrease people’s trust in state authorities, to provoke and amplify social tensions, to validate their own conspiracy theories.
When arithmetic becomes sovereignists’ enemy
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: We don't know where Mr. MEP Piperea gets his data, but the numbers presented and the calculations he makes are quite far from the real ones. Thus, the MApN (National Defense Ministry) press release clearly states that the amount Romania will pay is, lo and behold!, 625,591,000 euros + VAT – that is, somewhere over 750 million, not 560, and for this money, 231 Mistral systems (the "some 250") will be purchased, as well as 934 Mistral missiles, and "training services, training ammunition, documentation, a simulator and logistical support." Leaving aside the cost of the services listed above, if we just do a rough calculation, dividing the 750 million by the 1,165 systems + missiles, we will have an average cost of under 645,000 euros per unit, which is approximately the cost that the lawyer heard "is said" in the market. It is worth noting that we have not considered the decreases after VAT deduction, nor the costs of related services, which will obviously reduce the unit price somewhere, most likely to around 500,000 euros for a missile with a "list price of 600,000."
Romania will not pay more than other states, as we can deduce, for example, from the contract signed by the Spanish Ministry of Defense for the acquisition of the same French-made missiles. Therefore, for 522 Mistral missiles, the Spanish government will pay a total of 325 million euros, which is an average price of over 620,000 euros per missile, not including VAT.
We also don't know where the MEP got the information that two-thirds of these systems and related ammunition will be donated to Ukraine, as there is absolutely no source (official or from alternative media) to support this idea at this time. According to the official statement cited above, the contract does not include a commitment to transfer part of the acquisition to Ukraine. Moreover, such an action must be regulated by a law, corroborated by the approval of the Supreme Council of National Defense, the Government , and especially Parliament, as happened in the case of the donation of the Patriot system. In addition, international arms transactions are subject to much stricter rules than in the case of consumer goods, and such an action by Romania would necessarily have to be approved by the manufacturer, in this case the French government.
Moreover, the same MApN statement says that "the beneficiaries of the program will be the three categories of forces of the Romanian Army, as well as the Special Operations Forces," without making any reference to donating a part to a third state, just as the leadership of the Spanish army did two years ago, which announced the distribution of the 522 missiles to its three branches: the land forces, the air forces, and the naval forces. To date, the only states that have announced the donation of Mistral missiles to Ukraine are Norway (in 2022) and Estonia. Norway donated approximately 100 Mistral missiles + an undisclosed number of launchers to Ukraine, and Estonia announced in 2024 that it would deliver (and actually delivered) "Mistral systems + related missiles" to Ukraine. Also, in August 2025, the manufacturer of Mistral missiles, MBDA, reported that it was making deliveries directly to Ukraine.
Similarly, the simplistic reduction of calculations to a trivial division of a potential budget by the number of purchased equipment is a mistake, hopefully unintentional. Senator Petrea's result stems from the confusion between the price of the vehicle with the basic configuration (armored body, engine, transmission, running gear, standard technical integration, etc.) and the contractual price, which includes much more than the "bare" vehicle. Military contracts are complex packages that include ammunition, spare parts, electronic systems, maintenance, training, and logistical support, etc., over several years. Moreover, the calculation uses maximum amounts, disregarding the fact that, for example, the 761.2 million Euros granted to Romania through the SAFE program for the purchase of the 139 armored personnel carriers represents the maximum threshold that our country can spend on this type of military equipment. More specifically, the mentioned amount is the budget, without this meaning that it will be fully exhausted.
In fact, the narrative, without absolutely any real basis, only seeks to amplify anti-Ukrainian sentiments, in a logic that only Romanian sovereignists can produce, that of positioning themselves against a people fighting for sovereignty. It also continues the propagandistic thread, with Muscovite roots, of Romania's colonization by France, which, after taking our water, electricity, freedom, faith, and dignity, makes us pay excessively high prices for its products. Obviously, the narrative also aims to validate its own political discourse, which claims that the current government is causing a disaster for the country, from which only the current opposition can save it.
Arming doesn't always mean preparing to attack
CONTEXT: The plan of the member states of the European Union to develop their defense capabilities has been the subject of a real informational attack for some time, aimed at transforming the initiative into a justification for Russian aggression in Ukraine and the increasingly frequent incursions of Moscow forces' drones into the EU's airspace. Fake news and disinformation claiming that Europe actually wants to attack Russia are amplified by local factors, who argue that supporting Ukraine hides the European states’ desire for war, and who superimpose on this wave of fake news, narratives with local specifics, such as, in Romania, the one that claims that France is a colonizing state. Moscow has every interest in antagonizing the local population against France (the only EU state with nuclear military capabilities and declared by Vladimir Putin himself as Russia's main enemy) but also against the government in Bucharest, in order to install a regime favorable to the Kremlin's policy. What the sovereignists do not explain, however, is why, in the almost four years since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western states have not attacked Russia, perhaps at the most opportune moment for such an action.
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