Home › Politics › What France's Mirage pledge meant for Kyiv
What France's Mirage pledge meant for Kyiv
Summary
A look back at the French jet announcement of 6 June 2024 and the warning from Moscow two days earlier.
What did France commit to Ukraine in the days before 7 June 2024, and how did Moscow respond? The picture that emerged was of an expanding Western military role, met with an explicit threat.
On 6 June 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would send Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fighter aircraft to Ukraine. He also said France would train Ukrainian pilots, with the stated timeline running to the end of 2024. The pledge fell within the wider stream of military aid to Ukraine during the war.
Two days earlier, on 4 June 2024, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had warned that French military instructors would be "legitimate targets" if they were deployed to Ukraine. That warning concerned instructors on Ukrainian soil, and it placed the question of Western training missions in the context of Russia–NATO relations.
Taken together, the two statements showed the lines being drawn by 7 June 2024. Paris was setting out a concrete delivery and training programme, while Moscow was publicly stating how it would regard French personnel sent into Ukraine. The announcement set a deadline of the end of 2024, which meant the practical test of both positions lay in the months ahead.
