Ukraine to buy ‘up to 100’ French fighter jets, Elysee Palace announces
By Joseph Ataman and Kosta Gak, CNN
(CNN) — Ukraine will purchase “up to 100” French-made Rafale fighter jets as well as anti-air defenses and drones from France, the Elysee Palace confirmed, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Paris on Monday.
“We will have the greatest air defense system, one of the greatest in the world,” the Ukrainian president told reporters after signing the letter of intent with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Villacoublay Air Force Base southwest of Paris on Monday morning.
At a news conference, Zelensky told reporters that the deal would include eight air defense systems and six launchers in what he described as an “historic agreement.”
Macron said that some of the deliveries of drones, interceptor drones and guided bombs, would come in the “very short term” with manufacturing commitments made for the coming three years. The Elysee Palace said that the purchases covered by the letter of intent would span the next 10 years.
Macron said that Ukraine will receive a “new generation” of the SAMP/T missile interceptor – largely comparable to the US-made Patriot system – which will be available in 2026.
Questioned over the financing of the deal, Zelensky said Ukraine was examining the possible co-production of the French-made jets.
Good friends
This was Zelensky’s ninth visit to Paris since the 2022 Russian invasion, as France has become a central pillar of Western support for Ukraine, particularly given the unpredictability of US weapons supplies.
In a powerful show of Franco-Ukrainian military cooperation, the leaders inked the agreement in front of a Rafale jet loaded up with guided AASM bombs and beside a SCALP cruise missile that Paris has already supplied to Kyiv.
The two leaders were flanked by a SAMP/T missile interceptor system and a GF300 radar system that France has also sent to Ukraine.
The Rafale is a multi-role fourth generation fighter jet, similar in role to the American F-16, capable of carrying out long-range bombing and dogfighting tasks in the same mission, according to the French military.
France has previously provided Kyiv with Mirage jets, which form the backbone of France’s aerial bomber force.
France has seen broad success exporting the Rafale, including to India.
In what has been described as the largest aerial battle of the modern era, India lost one of its Rafale jets in combat with Pakistani forces in May, according to a French intelligence source. However, the French jets’ performance in the India Air Force has been widely praised by expert reviews in the Indian press.
The French aviation firm behind the Rafale, Dassault, is looking to boost its production output to four fighter jets per month and the company said it has 233 jets still on order, as of October 7.
The agreement signed Monday is merely a letter of intent, still a way off a concrete purchase, spurring questions as to how Ukraine will pay for the French jets when Ukraine signed a letter of understanding for 100-150 Swedish-made Grippen jets in October.
In a letter to European Union members on Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested that Ukraine had three options – independently or in combination – to meet its financing needs. She said these were grants from EU allies, a loan funded by EU borrowing or loan linked to the cash balance of frozen Russian assets, according to Reuters.
The Elysee Palace also said that European financing could be used for the purchases as well as financing from frozen Russian assets.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
