Rostec compares the French Mirage 2000 to the Russian fighter jet.
The Mirage 2000 fighter jets that France supplied to Ukraine would be quickly destroyed by the Russian military if Kyiv used them near the front lines, Russia's Rostec defense corporation stated.
Earlier, on February 6th, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that Kyiv had received the first batch of fourth-generation Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets, fulfilling a commitment made by President Emmanuel Macron last summer. Lecornu stated that these aircraft would be flown by Ukrainian pilots who had received training in France.
When asked by the TASS news agency about the prospects of Kyiv using French fighter jets, a Rostec representative stated: "If they are deployed to engage in air combat or carry out airstrikes near the front lines, they will be quickly shot down."
According to this representative, the Mirage 2000 is "an outdated aircraft, significantly inferior to modern Russian fighter jets." The TASS source claims that, like the US-designed F-16s supplied to Ukraine from Western countries in August 2024, the French aircraft can only be used in areas far from the battlefield.
"As a fighter jet, the F-16 has turned out to be far less impressive than expected," a Rostec representative emphasized.
According to RT, the highly anticipated transfer of US F-16 fighter jets has not had a significant impact on the battlefield. Ukraine lost its first F-16 on its first mission in early September 2024. A Ukrainian MP later claimed that the aircraft was shot down by mistake by the Patriot air defense system – also supplied by the West. Since then, there has been almost no information about the use of F-16s in combat.
On February 6th, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov welcomed the arrival of the Mirage 2000 and additional F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands, declaring that "the skies over Ukraine are becoming safer."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also thanked French President Macron for providing the fighter jets. “The French President always keeps his word, and we appreciate that,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
For its part, Moscow has repeatedly warned that the supply of weapons to Kyiv by the US and EU countries will not prevent Russia from achieving its military goals, but will only prolong the conflict and increase the risk of direct confrontation with NATO.
