“With Ukrainian pilots on board who have been trained for several months in France, they will now participate in defending the skies of Ukraine,” he wrote without specifying the exact number of aircraft.
On June 6, President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris would transfer Mirage fighter jets and train Ukrainian pilots in France.
Later, the newspaper Le Monde reported that the French Air Force had pledged to train 26 Ukrainian military pilots over two years.
On Oct. 8, Lecornu said that the first jets would be delivered to Ukraine by March 2025.
The Mirage 2000 fighter jets could form a new brigade in the Ukrainian Air Force, which would fight alongside the battle-hardened 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that France plans to equip the Mirage 2000 jets in a way that ensures Ukrainian forces gain aerial superiority over Russian aviation.