French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage fighter planes so that it can defend itself against Russian aggression. Macron said in an interview with French public radio that he would announce “new cooperation with Ukraine and the sale of the Dassault Mirage 2000-5, the French-made fighter plane that will allow Ukraine to protect its territory and airspace” against Russian attacks. Macron said France would also begin training Ukrainian pilots. He reiterated that Ukraine should be allowed to use weapons provided by its Western allies to target Russian military targets and “neutralize the points from which (the country) is under attack.” Ukraine is fighting to repel a Russian attack in the eastern regions, including the Kharkiv and Donetsk border regions. The offensive seeks to exploit a shortage of ammunition and troops in Kyiv along the nearly 1,000-kilometre front line.
The French Air Force operates approximately 30 Mirage 2000-5F and 65 Mirage 2000D fighter jets, which entered service in the early 2000s.
France’s Mirage 2000-5F fighter jets are reportedly converted from older Mirage 2000 versions and differ from export versions in certain ways, including the continued use of older missile countermeasure systems. The Mirage 2000D fighter jets are the basis of the French Air Force’s air-based nuclear deterrent and will not be transferred to Ukraine.
It was also claimed that Ukraine requested Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets from France last year and that some Ukrainian personnel had already started training in France. It was stated that Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov requested Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets during his visit to France in November 2023. It is stated that during the meetings between French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, Rustem Umerov requested 6 Mirage 2000 fighter jets and the training of the personnel who will fly these aircraft and that this request was also conveyed to the French Parliament.
The Ukrainian Air Force has been requesting modern warplanes from Western countries for a long time to compensate for its losses in the war and overcome its technological and numerical deficiencies against the Russian Air Force.
