France has said it will start delivering Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine early next year, as Russian forces tried to storm another small Kyiv-held city in the Donetsk region and injured at least 28 civilians in an air strike on the city of Kharkiv.
“Mirage 2000 is heading for Ukraine: delivery still scheduled for the 1st quarter of 2025 ... they will be equipped with new equipment: air-ground combat capabilities and anti-electronic warfare defence. Training of Ukrainian pilots and mechanics continues,” French defence minister Sébastien Lecornu wrote on social media on Tuesday.
It is not clear how many Mirages will be sent to Ukraine, which is now taking gradual delivery of US-built F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands. Kyiv expects to eventually receive dozens of F-16s, but the process of decision-making, training and delivery by western allies has been beset by delays that have frustrated Ukraine and hampered its fight against Russia’s bigger and more heavily armed invasion force.
A week after seizing the strategic city of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are now trying to storm Toretsk, another small city about 100km to the north and just 30km from Bakhmut, which Moscow’s military flattened and then occupied last year.
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“The hottest spot right now is the Toretsk area. The fighting is happening within Toretsk itself. The situation is unstable, with battles being fought literally for every doorway,” said Ukrainian military spokeswoman Anastasia Bobovnikova.
“The Russians have entered the eastern outskirts of the city ... but the situation is constantly changing – at times, we overrun their positions, and at others, they destroy ours.”
Ukraine says it needs western fighter jets and US permission to use western-supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia to stop relentless enemy air strikes on its troops and on towns, cities and critical infrastructure.
Officials in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, said at least 28 civilians were injured in a missile strike on Tuesday, and residents of two more settlements near the Russian border in Kharkiv region were told to evacuate due to heavy shelling.
Russia struck the Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday and damaged a foreign-registered cargo ship, killing a Ukrainian worker and injuring several foreign crew members, local officials said.
Meanwhile, South Korean defence minister Kim Yong-hyun said it was “highly likely” that six North Korean officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike near Donetsk last week, as reported by media in Kyiv.
Pyongyang has denied allegations from Kyiv and the US that it has delivered large quantities of artillery shells and missiles to Moscow for use in Ukraine.
“The relations between Russia and North Korea are evolving to be almost as close as a military alliance,” Kim said.
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