France is ready to train pilots immediately with the coordination of other European states and the US, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday evening, noting it could be the precursor to the delivery of planes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on a trip to Europe last weekend, where he reiterated his request for fighter planes to be sent to the country.
France wants to “help Ukraine to resist, to organise, at the moment it chooses, a counter-offensive” against Russia, said Macron, confirming that France would deliver to Ukraine new ammunition and train battalions that will be engaged in this counter-offensive.
This counter-offensive should serve to “bring everyone back to the negotiating table and under conditions that [Ukraine] will have chosen and build a durable peace for it”, said Macron, noting that its “success” is “decisive” for peace.
Macron also announced that the French army was ready to train Ukrainian pilots.
He added that such training is possible “starting from now” and can be done jointly with other European countries and perhaps with the Americans.
Even if “there is no taboo”, Macron explained that talking about deliveries of fighter planes now “would be a theoretical debate”.
He also recalled France’s stance, which is clear about not delivering weapons “that can reach Russian soil” and that do not weaken France’s ability to defend itself.
Speaking of tank deliveries, Macron said: “We were the ones who triggered a wider movement”.
At the same time, France’s former chief of staff of the French Air Force, General Jean-Paul Palomeros, interviewed on LCI after the interview with the president, called training one of the “prerequisites” for a possible delivery of fighter aircraft.
However, constructing a combat aircraft can take time, though Ukrainians “deserve to have modern means to take the ascendancy” over Russia. The general added that training already experienced pilots to fly Western fighter jets can take several months.
Regarding aircraft deliveries, Zelenskyy is requesting F16 fighter jets – planes France does not have, since it has Rafales and Mirage.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office also said they would begin training “to provide Ukrainians with piloting skills” this summer. ” This training goes hand in hand with UK efforts to work with other countries on providing F16 jets – Ukraine’s fighter jets of choice,” 10 Downing Street added.
As has been the case since the start of the war, the French president and his services have not given details of the answers given to Zelenskyy’s during their meeting on Sunday, nor of the amounts these deliveries represent, so as not to give Russia any clues.
(Davide Basso | EURACTIV.fr)
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