Ukraine will receive 100 French Rafale fighter jets from Paris as part of a long-term defense agreement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed as a “historic deal.”
Under a 10-year agreement, Kyiv will receive upgraded models of the multirole aircraft, along with an unspecified number of radars, stocks of missiles and guided bombs, and eight SAMP-T surface-to-air missile systems, Zelensky said.
Zelensky inked a letter of intent alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at an air base close to the capital on Monday.
France has already sent a handful of its Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine. Kyiv has received additional Soviet-era aircraft to supplement its preexisting fleet and American-made F-16s from several of its allies. Ukraine may also receive Swedish Gripen fighter jets.
Ukraine’s air force has been up against Russia’s larger and more technologically superior fleet for nearly four years, although experts have deemed Moscow’s performance in the skies to be lackluster.
More aircraft are not a silver bullet for Ukraine, and certainly not one that is expected to arrive quickly, though. Training up pilots on each of the specific jets also takes time and pushes back the day Ukraine will be able to use the aircraft in its skies.
The Rafales, while older aircraft, are capable of going up against Russian jets and would bolster Ukraine’s forces whenever they are operational. However, it would entirely depend on the timeline and the number of combat-capable personnel.
The United States’ efforts for a ceasefire have stalled, despite pledges from President Donald Trump ahead of his return to the White House that he would bring an end to the war in just 24 hours.
Yet the jets send a strong message to Russia anyway, said Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee.
“This agreement between France and Ukraine is a political blow to Russia,” he told Newsweek.
The Rafale is a fourth-generation aircraft manufactured by the French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. France has achieved considerable success in exporting the jet to customer nations such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Ukraine has consistently put air defense systems at the top of its wish list in requests from its allies. But European members of NATO are struggling with keeping their own stockpiles up as the continent stares down the possibility of Russian attacks in the coming years.
Zelensky said in a statement posted to social media that he had joined Macron in meetings with defense companies in the country. Ukrainian officials had met with representatives from defense giants like Lockheed Martin during a trip to the U.S. last month.