Paris will send fighter jets to Ukraine, train thousands of Ukrainian troops
- 8 June, 09:53
France will transfer Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train 4,500 Ukrainian pilots to help Ukraine repel Russian attacks, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
“We’re going to launch a new cooperation and announce the transfer of Mirage 2000-5s. We will allow Ukraine to protect its soil, its airspace. So from tomorrow, we’ll launch a pilot training program,” Macron said in an interview on TF1 and France 2 television channels on Thursday. On the same day, Macron offered to train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers and provide them with the ammunition and weapons necessary to defend their territory. “This brigade, if you can call it French, is undoubtedly a very important factor. So there will be French trainers on Ukrainian soil,” Macron went on saying. His statement follows the Kremlin's warning last week that Western army instructors training Ukrainian soldiers in the country would have no "immunity" from Russian strikes.
Macron’s pledge to boost Ukraine’s defence coincided with the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, attended by world leaders. Joe Biden, who was participating in commemorations, pledged another $225 in military assistance to Ukraine and also apologized for the monthslong delay in the defense bill worth $61 billion. In a speech earlier at an American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Biden linked D-Day landings in Normandy to Ukraine’s struggles against Russia.
