Well Ukrainian and South Korean Intelligence is claiming the same thing. It's beyond reasonable doubt at this stage.
Ukraine - Russia Conflict
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In Ukraine, Austin takes aim at Putin 'apologists,' decries 'both sides' narrative on blame for war - Breaking Defense
The speech came days after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested Ukrainian leadership "let the war start."
In a first, France welcomes Russian army deserters
Six Russian soldiers who fled the fighting in Ukraine have found refuge in France and hope to receive asylum, in a landmark case of Russian deserters being welcomed in an EU country as a group.Since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Western countries including France have welcomed thousands of...
Russian kamikaze drones "Geran-2" now pose a serious threat to military and industrial facilities in Ukraine. Many means are used to combat them, but even this is not enough. Ukrainian media published footage of the interception of a Russian drone "Geran-2" by a Mi-24 helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force.
The Ukrainian army has deployed American-made M1A1 SA Abrams tanks in the Kursk region of Russia for the first time. The video shows an M1A1 Abrams and an M2A2 Bradley IFV from the 47th separate mechanized brigade "Magura" in the village of Novoivanovka in the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region. It is not clear from the video who is being fought. Meanwhile, the squad commander of the 21st separate mechanized brigade of Ukraine, Alexander Tymoshchuk, reported on the situation in the Kursk region. According to him, 350 Ukrainian soldiers entered the Kursk region, 40 people left the Kursk region alive, and now there are 15 soldiers left alive. Interview in Telegram in Ukrainian.
Britain announces $3B loan for Ukraine from frozen Russian assets
Washington DC (UPI) Oct 22, 2024 - Britain on Monday announced it will lend Ukraine nearly $3 billion to be used on weapons and aid needed to repel the Russia's invasion.
www.spacewar.com
La France va livrer début 2025 trois Mirage 2000-5 à l'Ukraine
France to deliver three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine in early 2025
France has decided to deliver an initial batch of three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine. These aircraft will be armed with Scalp cruise missiles and AASM bombs for air-to-ground combat missions.
There will be three of them. France is to deliver three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2025, according to corroborating sources. This is a figure that has never before been announced by either the Élysée Palace or the French Ministry of Defence. The Mirage 2000-5s that Paris plans to supply to Ukraine will not be delivered until the first quarter of 2025, to allow time for the aircraft to be modified and the pilots and mechanics to be trained, as Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu explained on 8 October. When questioned by La Tribune, the ministry declined to comment.
In addition to Mica air-to-air missiles, these three Mirage 2000-5s, which will fly in Ukrainian colours, will be armed with AASM bombs (Safran) for air strikes and Scalp cruise missiles following requests from the Ukrainians. Two 30 mm cannons will complete its armament. This configuration is similar to that of the Greek Mirage 2000-5 (19 Mirage 2000-5EG and 5 Mirage 2000-5BG), which is whetting the appetites of India (18 aircraft) and Taiwan (6). According to the Avions légendaires website, these two countries are keen to buy this type of aircraft to add to their Mirage fleets.
26 Mirage 2000-5s in the French Air Force
The French Air Force currently has 26 Mirage 2000-5s in service, based at Luxeuil/Saint-Sauveur and Djibouti. Equipped for aerial combat, they will fly the Ukrainian colours before being fitted with ‘new equipment’, as the Minister for the Armed Forces explained on X (formerly Twitter). This includes air-to-ground combat equipment as well as electronic warfare equipment to resist Russian jamming. The aircraft will be modified at the Cazaux air base in the south-west of France, while the pilots and mechanics who will operate them will be trained at the Nancy base in eastern France.
France is also involved in the training of Ukrainian pilots at the Cazaux base, who are destined to fly American F16 fighter jets. Several countries with F-16s have already supplied Kiev with combat aircraft, while French President Emmanuel Macron announced in June his intention to do the same with Mirage 2000s. He was responding to the Ukrainian President's request for more air defence resources (air-to-ground systems and combat aircraft). Ukraine is under constant bombardment, particularly of its energy infrastructure.
An air superiority combat aircraft
Commissioned in 1999, the Mirage 2000-5F was the spearhead of French air defence. It was the first French ‘Fox 3 shooter’ fighter, a ‘shoot and forget’ capability that revolutionised combat tactics. Heir to the Mirage 2000C, its system has been completely redesigned and modernised, in particular with the RDY radar from Thales. Now based at Luxeuil-les-Bains air base (116), it equips the last squadron specialising in air defence: the 01.002 ‘Cigognes’ fighter group, which carries out air policing and assistance missions on national territory or in allied countries, air protection of an area of interest, air superiority, bombing mission escort and nuclear raid escort.
This aircraft is also stationed in Djibouti under a bilateral agreement. The Mirage 2000-5F has been deployed on a number of occasions in recent years, notably during Operation Harmattan over Libya in 2011 and Operation Hamilton in the Levant in 2018. It has also been regularly deployed in the Baltic States since 2016 as part of the Baltic Air Policing (BAP) and enhanced Air Policing (eAP) missions, where it carries out NATO-mandated air policing missions.
Acceleration of the Rafale delivery schedule?
At his hearing before the French National Assembly on 16 October, the new Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, General Jérôme Bellanger, explained that to compensate for the attrition of the two Rafales that crashed this summer and the sale of the three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine, the airmen are planning ‘initially to increase activity by adapting the MCO’ (Maintenance in Operational Condition), which will be done ‘in conjunction with the DMAe’ (Direction de la Maintenance Aéronautique). ‘Secondly, we will be accelerating the delivery of the fifth tranche (of the Rafale delivery programme, editor's note). The aim will be to reach the target of 185 aircraft as quickly as possible’, explained General Bellanger.
His predecessor, General Stéphane Mille, was already talking in June at the Paris Air Forum, organised by La Tribune, about a possible acceleration of the Rafale delivery schedule ‘if we wanted to compensate in some way for the sale of the Mirage 2000-5’. He said at the time that he was ‘in favour of compensating for the number of aircraft sold, and then there's also the feasibility for Dassault Aviation of being able to deliver aircraft at higher rates. The market is already very tight in this respect, but I understand that there is a little room for manoeuvre between now and 2030’.
France to deliver three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine in early 2025
France has decided to deliver an initial batch of three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine. These aircraft will be armed with Scalp cruise missiles and AASM bombs for air-to-ground combat missions.
There will be three of them. France is to deliver three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2025, according to corroborating sources. This is a figure that has never before been announced by either the Élysée Palace or the French Ministry of Defence. The Mirage 2000-5s that Paris plans to supply to Ukraine will not be delivered until the first quarter of 2025, to allow time for the aircraft to be modified and the pilots and mechanics to be trained, as Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu explained on 8 October. When questioned by La Tribune, the ministry declined to comment.
In addition to Mica air-to-air missiles, these three Mirage 2000-5s, which will fly in Ukrainian colours, will be armed with AASM bombs (Safran) for air strikes and Scalp cruise missiles following requests from the Ukrainians. Two 30 mm cannons will complete its armament. This configuration is similar to that of the Greek Mirage 2000-5 (19 Mirage 2000-5EG and 5 Mirage 2000-5BG), which is whetting the appetites of India (18 aircraft) and Taiwan (6). According to the Avions légendaires website, these two countries are keen to buy this type of aircraft to add to their Mirage fleets.
26 Mirage 2000-5s in the French Air Force
The French Air Force currently has 26 Mirage 2000-5s in service, based at Luxeuil/Saint-Sauveur and Djibouti. Equipped for aerial combat, they will fly the Ukrainian colours before being fitted with ‘new equipment’, as the Minister for the Armed Forces explained on X (formerly Twitter). This includes air-to-ground combat equipment as well as electronic warfare equipment to resist Russian jamming. The aircraft will be modified at the Cazaux air base in the south-west of France, while the pilots and mechanics who will operate them will be trained at the Nancy base in eastern France.
France is also involved in the training of Ukrainian pilots at the Cazaux base, who are destined to fly American F16 fighter jets. Several countries with F-16s have already supplied Kiev with combat aircraft, while French President Emmanuel Macron announced in June his intention to do the same with Mirage 2000s. He was responding to the Ukrainian President's request for more air defence resources (air-to-ground systems and combat aircraft). Ukraine is under constant bombardment, particularly of its energy infrastructure.
An air superiority combat aircraft
Commissioned in 1999, the Mirage 2000-5F was the spearhead of French air defence. It was the first French ‘Fox 3 shooter’ fighter, a ‘shoot and forget’ capability that revolutionised combat tactics. Heir to the Mirage 2000C, its system has been completely redesigned and modernised, in particular with the RDY radar from Thales. Now based at Luxeuil-les-Bains air base (116), it equips the last squadron specialising in air defence: the 01.002 ‘Cigognes’ fighter group, which carries out air policing and assistance missions on national territory or in allied countries, air protection of an area of interest, air superiority, bombing mission escort and nuclear raid escort.
This aircraft is also stationed in Djibouti under a bilateral agreement. The Mirage 2000-5F has been deployed on a number of occasions in recent years, notably during Operation Harmattan over Libya in 2011 and Operation Hamilton in the Levant in 2018. It has also been regularly deployed in the Baltic States since 2016 as part of the Baltic Air Policing (BAP) and enhanced Air Policing (eAP) missions, where it carries out NATO-mandated air policing missions.
Acceleration of the Rafale delivery schedule?
At his hearing before the French National Assembly on 16 October, the new Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, General Jérôme Bellanger, explained that to compensate for the attrition of the two Rafales that crashed this summer and the sale of the three Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine, the airmen are planning ‘initially to increase activity by adapting the MCO’ (Maintenance in Operational Condition), which will be done ‘in conjunction with the DMAe’ (Direction de la Maintenance Aéronautique). ‘Secondly, we will be accelerating the delivery of the fifth tranche (of the Rafale delivery programme, editor's note). The aim will be to reach the target of 185 aircraft as quickly as possible’, explained General Bellanger.
His predecessor, General Stéphane Mille, was already talking in June at the Paris Air Forum, organised by La Tribune, about a possible acceleration of the Rafale delivery schedule ‘if we wanted to compensate in some way for the sale of the Mirage 2000-5’. He said at the time that he was ‘in favour of compensating for the number of aircraft sold, and then there's also the feasibility for Dassault Aviation of being able to deliver aircraft at higher rates. The market is already very tight in this respect, but I understand that there is a little room for manoeuvre between now and 2030’.