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France plans to send Mirage fighters to Ukraine
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French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that his country will send some Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine and train pilots to fly them, as part of an increase in aid to help Kiev resist Russian advances on its territory.
The pledge came after NATO allies, including Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, committed to dispatching about 80 US-made F-16 fighters for Ukraine.
Macron said France is trying to form a coalition of countries that own the Mirage 2000 model, manufactured by Dassault Aviation, so it remains to be seen how many aircraft will be sent to Ukraine.
“The goal is to have the pilots and jets in Ukraine by the end of the year,” he added.
NATO allies will supply Ukraine with dozens of F-16 fighter jets starting this summer and have been training Ukrainian pilots to fly the aircraft for several months.
The Mirage is a multirole fighter that first entered service in the 1970s.
The 2000-5 is the most modern version, with advanced radar, but has been largely replaced in the French military by the more advanced Rafale.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pressing Western allies to supply the country with more weapons and lift restrictions on their use, including allowing Kiev to reach Russian territory.
Macron said last month that Ukraine should be allowed to use Western-made weapons to hit Russian military installationsand US President Joe Biden gave more limited permission.
Emmanuel Macron, right, greets Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the commemoration of the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach, Normandy © Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
Zelenskyy was in France on Thursday for talks with Macron and to participate, alongside Biden, in a series of events to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy that changed the course of the Second World War.
Biden used his address on Omaha Beach to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a “tyrant” and pledge support for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy was expected to argue for more military aid in a meeting with Biden, and he is expected to address the French parliament on Friday.
But one of Zelenskyy’s recent requests, for Western allies to send military instructors to Ukraine to help rapidly swell the ranks of its armed forces, has yet to be met.
Although French authorities suggested Last month, when Paris announced such a measure, Macron did not commit to sending people to carry out training.
He said on Thursday that negotiations were underway with other countries to form a coalition of those willing to provide instructors.
“There should be no taboo on this as it would be on Ukrainian sovereign territory,” he said, adding that he does not see this as an “escalation factor” against Russia.
Putin threatened to attack Western soldiers if they were sent to Ukraine and warned countries that he considered this a serious escalation.
Macron said France would train and equip an entire brigade of Ukrainian troops, numbering around 4,500 men.
Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive last summer demonstrated the country’s difficulty in organizing large-scale military operations involving more than a few hundred men.
In another sign of rising tensions between France and Russia, Moscow announced on Thursday that a French citizen had been arrested on suspicion of espionage.
Macron confirmed the arrest and said the person worked for a non-governmental organization and had no role working for France.
Additional reporting by Ben Hall in London