France aims to send Mirage fighter jets to help Ukraine fight Putin in 2025

PARIS — France aims to send French-made fighter jets to Kyiv in the first half of next year, Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said.

“Mirage 2000s could be flying in Ukraine in the first half of 2025,” he told Sud Ouest in an interview published late Monday.

Earlier this year, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to give Mirage 2000-5 jets to the war-torn country. Ukrainian pilots are already flying General Dynamics F-16s donated by European countries including the Netherlands and Denmark.

The French are tweaking their jets to make them more suitable for the war in Ukraine, Lecornu added. Mirage 2000s were originally designed to focus mostly on air-to-air combat.

“The aim is to equip them with air-to-ground combat capabilities. And to reinforce their electronic warfare system. But most important of all is the training of pilots and mechanics, which continues in Nancy,” the French minister said.

The exact timetable of the deliveries will depend on how the training is going.

Both Macron and Lecornu have repeatedly refused to disclose how many warplanes would be sent to Ukraine.