The French government has decided not to deliver to Russia two high-tech warships built under a billion-euro contract with Moscow, the Elysée Palace announced on the evening of Aug. 5.

France will now have “full ownership and free disposal” of the Mistral-class warships after French President Francois Hollande and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin reached agreement in a phone conversation to scrap the deal on the sophisticated helicopter carrier assault vessels, French newspaper Le Monde reported.