People have been throwing around the "the French support is covert" thingy around since the start of this war. I don't see it. Those Caesars weren't delivered silently at all.
Even covert support costs money. French is broke af and may not even fulfill their publicized commitments. For a country seeing itself as one of the major military players in Europe, they're slacking a lot on this one.
Without looking at a map my memory is kinda fuzzy but I believe Russian troops would have trouble getting there. I hope they try the Black Sea route