Kyiv, July 23 (IANS) Ukraine lost a French-supplied Mirage 2000 fighter jet on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, we lost our combat aircraft today, a French machine, a very effective one -- one of our Mirage jets," Zelensky said.
The pilot successfully ejected, Zelensky said, noting that the crash was not caused by a Russian attack.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the aircraft went down during a flight mission, causing no casualties on the ground, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ukraine received its first batch of Mirage 2000 fighter jets from France in February. The crash marked the first reported incident involving a French-supplied Mirage aircraft in Ukraine.
The fighter jets are flown by Ukrainian pilots who had been trained for several months in France.
On June 6, 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would provide Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine.
"We will launch a new cooperation and transfer Mirage 2000-5s," said Macron. The French leader also promised to train a whole Ukrainian battalion of 4,500 troops, to be deployed on the battlefield.
He said the delivery of French fighter jets "is not a factor of escalation" and promised "these weapons will not be used to bomb civilians." Additionally, Macron didn't exclude the possibility of sending military instructors to Ukraine.
"There should be no taboo on this subject," he said in an interview.
Mirage 2000 is a French multi-role, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter, manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It is capable of carrying precision-guided munitions, including SCALP missiles.
Kyiv has, however, not specified the number of the delivered or the total number of jets that France plans to deliver to Ukraine.
According to the French daily Le Monde, the French Air Force owns only a limited number of fighters -- 26 Mirage 2000-5 jets out of around 200 Mirage and Rafale aircraft.
These fighters barely suffice for France to carry out all the missions for which it is responsible on a day-to-day basis, a report cited.
--IANS
/as
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