Macron Denies Zelensky's Remarks About Negotiations on Supply of Mirage Jets to Ukraine

PARIS (Sputnik) - Paris is not discussing with Kiev the possible supply of French-made Mirage fighter jets, but is studying how useful they could be for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.

On Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky told French media that Kiev and Paris were discussing the possibility of the transfer of Mirage fighters to Ukraine.

"Today we are not negotiating about Mirages, but we are training pilots. Among the eight existing coalitions, to which today a ninth coalition on long-range weapons has been added, there is a coalition on aviation, on F-16 fighters. We do not have F-16s because we have our own aircraft. We are studying our own capabilities to see if this will be useful for the defense of Ukraine," Macron told reporters following the conference on supporting Ukraine.

The conference, convened on Macron’s initiative and held in Paris, was attended by about 20 leaders of European countries, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

In 2023, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not need the French Mirage 2000 fighters that Paris and Kiev had been discussing because they were an outdated model.