France intends to hand over Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine by the end of March

France is going to deliver Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine by the end of March 2025. This was announced by the head of the country's Foreign Ministry, Jean-Noel Barrot, on air on Sud Radio on January 28.

"French Mirage will soon be in the Ukrainian skies," the TASS news agency quoted him as saying.

According to the minister, this will happen at the end of the first quarter of 2025.

When asked about Paris' possible plans to send troops to Ukraine after the end of the conflict, the French foreign minister did not answer the question.

"We must prepare for full participation, and here I mean France, Europe and to some extent the United States, to provide guarantees for peace in Ukraine when it is achieved," Barrot said.

On the eve of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term expired in May 2024) held a meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, during which they discussed cooperation between the states. This was reported by the Ukrainian leader in his Telegram channel on January 27.

Earlier, on January 15, The Telegraph newspaper reported that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were considering sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.

Before that, on December 19 last year, it became known that since February 2022, the EU countries have spent €47.3bn on military aid to Ukraine, the official representative of the European Commission's foreign policy service, Anita Hipper, confirmed to Izvestiya.

Back in November, it was reported that France intended to transfer six Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets "with full support" to Ukraine.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the backdrop of Russia's special operation to protect Donbas, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military