In the lead-up to the holding of a new NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had a meeting in which new steps to strengthen cooperation between their countries in matters of defense were discussed, this in the face of the Russian invasion that is striking the former. From that meeting, it was highlighted that the leaders discussed the possibility that France might transfer more Mirage 2000 fighter jets to equip the Ukrainian Air Force, the same ones that have been operating for said force since the arrival of the first units in February of this same year.
Gathering some of the official statements issued by President Zelensky, which were published through his official Telegram channel: “We talked about the possibility of expanding our air fleet with more Mirage fighters, as well as about co-production and investment in interceptor drones. Together with France, we are doing everything possible to better protect Ukrainian skies. We hope that good decisions will be made in the near future.”
It is worth recalling at this point that the aforementioned Mirages have already seen action in Ukrainian skies on repeated occasions, contributing to a much-demanded air defense network that is trying to withstand Russian attacks. As an example of this, we can cite the first deployment of these aircraft manufactured by the French company Dassault, standing out for shooting down a Kh-101 cruise missile launched by Russian troops; a mission in which they were deployed alongside the F-16 fighters that were also donated by Kyiv’s Western allies.
It is also useful to mention that the Mirage jets previously transferred by France to Ukraine were subjected to upgrade work in order to adapt them to the needs of modern battlefields. Among the reported improvements, we can list upgrades in these units’ electronic warfare and countermeasure systems, to which must be added the installation of enhancements in the air-to-ground combat capabilities they possess, something achieved by taking advantage of the RDY radar with pulse-Doppler mechanical scanning.
Finally, it is important to highlight that during the meeting between both leaders, another topic of conversation was the possibility that France might deploy troops as part of the coalition that Kyiv seeks to promote to guarantee its defense once peace is reached, with the aim of preventing new Russian attempts to advance on its territory. In sum, the Ukrainian president reiterated the need to strengthen the sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow and presented his expectations regarding the development of this new NATO Summit held in The Hague.
*Images used for illustrative purposes
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