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Ukraine Takes to the Skies with French Mirage Fighters!
Here’s why Russia should be nervous.
While everyone’s been talking about F-16s, Ukraine’s air force just got a major upgrade, (and somewhere in the Kremlin, there’s a lot of nervous sweating).
The first batch of French Mirage 2000–5 fighter jets has officially landed in Ukraine, adding another Western aircraft to the mix alongside the Falcons that began arriving last year. It’s another key milestone in Kyiv’s relentless push to modernize its air power and counter Russia’s numerical superiority in the skies.
On Thursday, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed the delivery, stating that Ukrainian pilots, who have spent months training in France, brought the aircraft home themselves.
That’s a far cry from the early days of the war when Ukraine had to rely on its aging Soviet-era fleet, a collection of MiGs and Sukhois that were already outclassed when Russia first rolled into Crimea in 2014.
Russia essentially flies the same MiGs and Sukhois, albeit, with one crucial difference: Russia has been moderately upgrading its avionics and radars in these jets over the years while Ukraine’s MiGs are still largely the Cold War variety.
The Mirage 2000–5, originally designed for air superiority, has been modified to…
