President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France will send Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine, marking a notable escalation in the country’s direct military support to Kyiv. Macron stated that on Friday, during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to France for D-Day anniversary celebrations, his government will officially announce the provision of the warplanes to Ukraine.
However, Macron did not specify the number of Mirages that will be provided, the timeline for their delivery, or the financial terms involved.
Macron said during an interview with broadcaster TF1 in the northern city of Caen, coinciding with the start of an official visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Tomorrow we will launch a new cooperation and announce the transfer of Mirage 2000 [jets], which help Ukraine protect its skies.”
The French president also announced that Ukrainians would receive training in France for five to six months starting this summer, with a goal of training 4,500 service personnel. Macron stated, “We’ve always had the same philosophy: we help the Ukrainians to fight.”
Until now, France had refrained from donating fighter jets to Ukraine, suggesting that Kyiv should focus on acquiring and training on F-16s, which are more widely used than the Mirages produced by French arms manufacturer Dassault.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is in France to participate in the 80th anniversary of the D-Day commemorations, which have brought together veterans and world leaders from allied nations on the Normandy beaches. Both U.S. President Joe Biden and Macron drew parallels between the fight against Nazism in World War II and Ukraine’s current struggle against the Russian invasion.
