French jets will swiftly be shot down if flown by Ukraine – Rostec
The Mirage 2000 is “significantly inferior” to modern Russian aircraft, the defense conglomerate has said | The Mirage 2000 fighter jets that France has delivered to Ukraine will be swiftly destroyed by the Russian military if Kiev uses them near the front line, Moscow’s defense conglomerate Rostec has said. ● On Thursday, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that Kiev had received the first batch of fourth generation Mirage 2000-5 aircraft, which the country’s president Emmanuel Macron promised to supply last summer. The jets will be flown by Ukrainian pilots who have undergone training in France, Lecornu said. ● A representative of Rostec said “if attempts to deploy them for dogfights or airstrikes near the front line are made, they will be promptly shot down” when asked to comment on the prospects of Kiev’s use of the French warplane by Tass news agency on Saturday. [...] Moscow has warned repeatedly that supplies of weapons to Kiev by the US and EU nations will not prevent Russia from achieving its military goals in the conflict, but will merely prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a direct confrontation with NATO.