France to provide Ukraine with ‘Mirage’ fighter jets | DW News

France to provide Ukraine with ‘Mirage’ fighter jets | DW News

but Emanuel macron says France will provide Ukraine with French made fighter jets the French President says the planes will arrive by the end of the year The Mirage 2000 fighter jet entered service in the late 1990s and was considered one of the best combat aircraft of that era France would also start training Ukrainian Pilots as part of the plans the question of Western Aid and training for Ukraine remains a testy subject however for both Russia and NATO they’ve already been working together in neighboring Poland these images show Ukrainian recruits being trained by French and other NATO instructors in April Ukraine has long wanted such training inside Ukraine now for some 150,000 fresh recruits Brigade by Brigade they can then be deployed to front lines within hours if needed rather than days or weeks but NATO boots on the ground even those of instructors dramatically raise the stakes potentially drawing the United States and Europe more directly into the war Russia was quick to respond to the idea first leaked to French media regardless of whether they are members of the French armed forces or simply mercenaries they represent an absolutely legitimate Target for our Armed Forces it’s not the first time Russia has talked tough about ever more threatening Western military aid to Ukraine and it’s not the first time the West has changed its mind about such Aid especially in the last year and more so after Moscow started claiming more victories in recent months Western allies crossed their own previous red lines with for example US haar’s Mobile rocket launchers Germany the UK and the US agreed to send heavyduty tanks the US gave the green light to countries wanting to and US made fighter jets and then quietly Joe Biden turned 180° and told Ukraine it can hit targets inside Russia with us-made missiles because we NATO’s Chief was already on board the time has come uh to consider whether it will be right to lift some of the restrictions which have been imposed lifting restrictions like putting NATO military personnel including military instructors In Harm’s Way inside Ukraine all right let’s get more from DW correspondent Aman EF in ke Aman good to see you how and where would France train Ukrainian soldiers well we don’t know there’s confusion about this at this moment because when maon announced the shipment of the Mirage Jets the approval of the shipment of the Mirage Jets he said that the uh Pilots Ukrainian Pilots would be trained in France now this contradicts reports that emerged just over a week ago uh saying that maon had been in talks with Ukraine to train fighter pilots in Ukraine uh the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces here even said he’d already signed off on the paperwork allowing those trainers into Ukraine now this was followed by threats from Russia that these would be legitimate military targets and now it sounds like m is saying that uh the next batch of Ukrainian fighter pilots will be trained uh outside of Ukrainian borders as has previously been done uh but don’t forget that there already are NATO uh Personnel in Ukraine France UK and the us all have military personnel in the country in advisory roles the France and uh ukra uh the United Kingdom have advisers uh helping the military already in Ukraine and the US is um has military personnel overseeing the shipment of American weapons so this wouldn’t be anything new but a mass of uh French pilot trainers coming into the country would uh be something that Russia might see as escalatory is France seen as a strong Ally by ukrainians this is changing at the very beginning of the war um he had the reputation of being one of Ukraine’s most hated friends uh there was a verb that was coined by Ukrainian military here called maoning uh which means to look very worried to make sure everybody knows you’re very worried about an issue and then do nothing about it uh he was one of the few leaders of a NATO country that opened dialogue with Russia after the fullscale invasions he had several phone calls with Vladimir Putin after he invaded Ukraine in February 2022 uh this came as as a as a you know ukrainians did not see this um in a good light at the beginning of the war but it seems that he’s reversed course now even becoming the taboo breaker among NATO countries suggesting even at the beginning of May that France could send its own BR troops uh into Ukraine if Russia crossed a red line ukrainians are currently pushing back against increased Russian attacks especially in the area around KH uh do they think that any of these initiatives from France will help them now they do there’s a lot of hope that uh a big shipment of fighter jets as long as along with training of fighter pilots could turn the tide here uh Russia has vast air super superiority in Ukraine which is a big deal for the Ukrainian front lines they really can’t move without being uh threatened by Russian missiles and Russian fighter jets and they believe that any uh help on that end will will uh help turn the tide in their favor uh but don’t forget this won’t be a silver bullet even uh military analysts are saying that now that’s because f-16s and Mirage fighter jets they’re a huge upgrade to Soviet area Jets they’re like computers in the sky they can be used as missile launchers hitting targets from Miles hundreds of miles away without being detected but as we’ve seen with the shipment of Abrams tanks from the US and the leopards from Germany uh these Advanced weapons don’t necessarily act as silver bullets what Ukraine needs is a lot of weapons not a few Precision weapons armyan EF in K thanks very much for that we can talk now to military expert Marina who’s with the war studies department at Kings College London welcome Marina Ukraine has been asking for fighter jets for well over a year now it looks like they’re finally getting them so this must be a really good day for keev hello Ana well absolutely Ukraine has been asking a lot for the fighter jets and there has have been some significant delays when it comes to the delivery of X f16s due to many problems associated with pilot training with getting the logistics right creating hungers uh training ground Crews and so on but um it looks promising as Ukraine is getting 80 f-16s it remains however be seen how vulnerable this will be to Russian groundbased air defenses and how Ukraine is planning to integrate them into their overall operational design okay as we’re saying it’s going to be almost half a year until Ukraine can actually use these jets in battle and we’re of course getting daily reports of Russia ramping up its attacks so in general is this too little too late well I think the problem is here is that it was a very difficult logistical operation to get those Jets to Ukraine to prepare the maintenance Crews to establish the logistical lines and so on and so what Russia will be doing certainly is using their intelligence Assets in order to locate uh where the storage facilities are where the Jets are stationed and they will try to destroy as many jets as they can before these Jets can take off so it remains to be seen how this is going to play out and whether Ukraine can essentially protect its own Fleet of f-16s because Ukraine is also lacking a defense systems MH when the time comes though for them to be used they could of course be used to hit targets inside Russia so so how do you expect Ukraine to use them to attack or to defend well we have to understand that these Jets will be capable of launching air to Air and air to ground missiles what I think will be the Ukrainian approach given the fact that the Russians have been warned well in advance and um the fact that the Russians are using their electronic warfare and air defense systems um in a synchronized way for air targets um it will be a great danger for the f-16s and also for the French Mirage Jets if and when they arrive so for the Ukrainian Armed Forces it will be more about denying the air superiority to the Russian Air Force and possibly preventing the Russians from launching their Fabs which have been um quite a significant damaging Factor throughout the past months of the war the French President Emanuel has said that France could be training Ukrainian pilots in Ukraine so just to clarify does this mean that French soldiers will be on the ground in Ukraine well essentially yes it means that French instructors should be on the ground in Ukraine in order to train Ukrainian pilots and uh president macron has already hinted at that a couple of times um uh until Putin has threatened to use um that itical nuclear weapons but but I think at this stage the problem here is how will France respond if Russia targets those French instructors even if they’re not actively taking part in combat operations Marina we’ll have to leave it there but thanks so much for that analysis that’s Marina from Kings College London thank you thank you for having me

Ukraine’s allies have already begun allowing Kyiv to use Western weapons to attack military targets inside Russia. The French leader, Emmanuel Macron, has even suggested that NATO troops could be deployed within Ukraine – to carry out training missions for example. But NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine, in whatever capacity, would be seen as a significant escalation by Russia.

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