French Mirage 2000 jets arrive in Ukraine with trained pilots

French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said that the first French Mirage 2000 multirole fighter jets with Ukrainian pilots has arrived in Ukraine.

“On June 6, 2024, Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of French Mirage 2000s to Ukraine. The first of them arrived in Ukraine today [Feb.6],” Lecornu said on X, Caliber.Az reports.

Le 6 juin 2024, @EmmanuelMacron avait annoncé la livraison à l’Ukraine de Mirage 2000 français.

Les premiers d’entre eux sont arrivés aujourd’hui en Ukraine.

Avec à leur bord les pilotes ukrainiens formés pendant plusieurs mois en France, ils participeront désormais à défendre…

— Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) February 6, 2025

The minister added: “With Ukrainian pilots on board, who have been trained for several months in France, they will now take part in defending Ukraine's skies.”

These jets, fully referred to as Dassault Mirage 2000, are a French multirole, single-engine, delta wing, fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air Force (Armée de l'air).

The Mirage 2000 evolved into a multirole aircraft with several variants developed, with sales to a number of nations. It was later developed into the Mirage 2000N and 2000D strike variants, the improved Mirage 2000-5, and several export variants. Over 600 aircraft were built and it has been in service with nine nations.

By Khagan Isayev