Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) spokesman Yuri Ignat denied reports that Ukrainian pilots were being trained in France and said that Ukrainian ground personnel of military aviation were being trained in that country. The news of the training on French soil was widely reported in the international media last week.
“There was a question that our pilots were supposedly studying in France. But there was talk about aviation experts involved in search and rescue operations, ground support, etc.,” Ignat said at a press conference at the Media Center of Ukraine, broadcast on YouTube.
“The press writes a lot and the statements of various country leaders about the supply of this or that weapon do not always correspond to reality,” he said. “Here we need to correct this message. “We need to provide more objective information,” he said.
Ignat also denied reports that Ukraine was preparing to receive Mirage 2000 fighter jets from France, calling them outdated.
Previously, the French portal Intelligence Online reported that a few months ago the French side unofficially began training Ukrainian pilots to fly Mirage2000 aircraft and their weapons. The same news echoed in the Western and Eastern press.
According to the French portal, in early September, after a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, the head of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that Kiev and Paris had agreed to train Ukrainian pilots in France.
Intelligence Online also reported that Kiev and Paris are discussing the possibility of transferring Mirage 2000 fighters from the French Air Force to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and that the parties are already close to concluding such an agreement.