France delivers first Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine

France has delivered the first Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine, the delivery of which was announced in 2024. French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced this on his X account.

Lecornu noted that on June 6, 2024, Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of French Mirage 2000 aircraft to Ukraine.

“On June 6, 2024, Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of French Mirage 2000s to the Ukraine. The first of these aircraft arrived in Ukraine today. With Ukrainian pilots trained for several months in France on board, they will now help defend the skies over the Ukraine,” Lecornu stated.

The French defense minister did not specify how many planes had arrived in Ukraine.

Earlier, Sébastien Lecornu said that the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025.

And the French media unofficially learned that the first batch of Mirage 2000-5s that France plans to provide to Ukraine will include three aircraft.

On September 20, the French Armed Forces announced that the first group of Ukrainian pilots who trained on Alphajet aircraft had completed their training.

They noted that the French Air Force center had been training pilots to meet the operational needs of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry since March 2024.

The French Air Force pledged to train 26 Ukrainian pilots in two years. However, the media reported that only 10 pilots have been trained since March. Some of them had never flown before, while others had experience flying L-39 Albatros training aircraft.

Back in June 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the transfer of several French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and the training of 4,500 Ukrainian military personnel as part of a new cooperation with Kyiv.

Macron also said that Ukrainian pilots and mechanics for Mirage 2000-5 fighters would be trained on French territory.

France currently has up to three dozen Mirage 2000-5F aircraft. For Ukraine, the fighters have been modernized, according to media reports. The main and first task of the Mirage will be to provide air defense to repel attacks, primarily cruise missiles and drones launched by Russia daily, Ukrainian experts say.

Aviation experts also estimate that an important task of the Mirage 2000-5F will be the use of SCALP missiles and other French air-to-ground missiles with different ranges.