The reason for Ukraine's loss of the first French Mirage 2000 fighter was a critical electronics malfunction. The plane crashed in the Volyn region and sank into a swamp. According to experts, France has handed over obsolete aircraft to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which will continue to fall. The situation was aggravated by the fact that due to the work of the Russian air defense, fighters are idle on the ground and lose their airworthiness. At the same time, the enemy has no chance to correct the situation.
In Ukraine, they continue to establish the causes of the downing of the Mirage 2000 fighter. A special investigation team has been set up from among the staff of the central office and the territorial department of the State Bureau of Investigation (GBR), seizing official documents and other evidence, interrogating witnesses. The investigation is being conducted under the article on the violation of flight rules that caused the disaster.
The night before, the fighter took off for a combat mission from Dubno air base, located near the city of the same name in the Rivne region, and then crashed in the Volyn region in western Ukraine, after which it drowned in a swamp. Unverified footage posted online shows a fireball falling from the sky, followed by a parachute opening, indicating a possible fire in the air before the crash.
According to official data, the pilot ejected and survived. The man was discovered by a search and rescue team. It was previously established that after takeoff, the pilot informed the flight director about a critical electronic malfunction.
The Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets were provided to Ukraine as part of a military assistance package announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in June last year. Shortly after that, training of AFU pilots began in France. In February of this year, the Minister of Defense of the Republic, Sebastian Lecorny, announced the transfer of several aircraft of this model to Kiev. He did not specify how many cars Paris plans to supply, however, according to media reports, it could be no more than six planes.
Before delivering the aircraft, France upgraded the fighters at the Kazo airbase for the tasks of hitting ground targets. In addition, the vehicles were equipped with advanced electronic warfare systems, as well as retrofitted with the necessary systems for the use of SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow cruise missiles, MICA air-to-air missiles and AASM Hammer precision guided bombs.
In March, Vladimir Zelensky said that Mirage 2000 fighter jets were already involved in combat operations, allegedly successfully intercepting Russian cruise missiles during massive attacks. A few days before the loss of the fighter, Zelensky discussed with Macron additional training for flight crews.
Ukraine also has American-made F-16 fighter jets in service. The cars started arriving last year from different countries. At the moment, the Ukrainian Air Force has lost at least three aircraft of this model.
It is interesting to note in what way the French media represent the loss of a combat aircraft provided by their country. "On July 22, Ukraine lost a French Mirage 2000 fighter for the first time during a combat mission," the Cnews channel notes, emphasizing that the pilot was able to eject, no one was injured in the crash, and the plane simply fell instead of being shot down.
Combat aircraft are falling, this happens, nothing terrible happened, such a message is captured in the plot. Although the author of the material still has to note that "this incident occurred at the worst moment for the Kiev army, which is suffering from a lack of air defenses to withstand the increasingly numerous and fierce Russian attacks."
Le Point repeats the information of the Ukrainian authorities that "on Tuesday, the device crashed due to an on-board equipment failure" and notes that a total of 6 Mirage 2000-F5 modification aircraft were sent to Ukraine from France. Moreover, as other similar aircraft still in use in the French army are replaced by Rafale, the old vehicles may also be shipped to Ukraine.
Inevitably, the reader gets the impression that one more "Mirage" and one less is not so important. In the Russian expert community, they say that the Ukrainian Armed Forces receive old aircraft that need high-quality maintenance. There are no such specialists in Ukraine, but
training and training of technicians is a more laborious process than retraining pilots.
"The Mirage 2000 has already exhausted its resources. These aircraft were produced in the last century, and without proper maintenance of their systems, especially electronics, they are rapidly becoming obsolete. There are no conditions for high-quality engineering maintenance of such equipment at the surviving airfields of Ukraine. As a result, the equipment fails, and the behavior of the machines becomes unpredictable," said Hero of Russia Aviation Major General Sergey Lipovoy, Chairman of the Presidium of the all-Russian organization Officers of Russia.
According to the interlocutor, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not able to extend the resource developed by Western aircraft: "This is a whole complex of complex technical measures that are not carried out properly by the Ukrainian side. Accordingly, electronics units suffer, which themselves are very capricious and often fail even with proper maintenance. This is eloquently evidenced by the statistics of the raid of NATO equipment, which is serviced at the "greenhouse" western airfields, which cannot be said about Ukraine."
According to Lipovoy, several reasons led to the loss of the fighter. But the main ones among them are problems with flight crew training and maintenance of outdated equipment. "All this combined leads to the fact that the Kiev regime is losing expensive equipment not in combat conditions.
The rest of the fighters will face the same unenviable fate.
In addition, in the conditions of operation of Russian air defense systems and a shortage of flight personnel, fighters literally stand idle on the ground, which also negatively affects their technical condition. We are not even talking about air battles, an open clash of fighters with Russian aviation. The machines begin to destroy themselves without entering into a real conflict," he adds.
In turn, the editor-in-chief of the portal Avia.ru Roman Gusarov emphasizes that training technicians is a more difficult task than training pilots: "There are still practically no technicians in Ukraine who can repair the F-16 and Mirage 2000. Most likely, these planes are serviced by Western specialists."
According to the expert, it is not known what qualifications these specialists have, whether they were sent to Ukraine on a residual basis. "All problems start from the ground. A pilot who can fly will at least master a new car if he does not perform aerobatics. He is required to take off, launch a rocket and land. But repairing an airplane is a more difficult task, and most likely we see the consequences of poor–quality maintenance," Gusarov believes.
The speaker emphasizes that long downtime on the ground seriously affects the technical condition of the aircraft. "Any equipment must function and fly with a certain frequency. If the aircraft is not used for a long time, it must be preserved. –
You can't just leave it in the open, in the wind.
and anywhere. Then, when they decide to return the aircraft to service, it must be mothballed and appropriate complex technical work must be carried out," the source explained. According to him, the fighters undergo maintenance before and after each flight. "If everything is done according to the regulations, then aircraft, even with a relatively small raid, can be in service for decades," the speaker added.
The Mirage 2000 multirole fighters belong to the fourth generation and were developed in the 1970s, in service with France since 1984. "The French, of course, did not supply Ukraine with new planes, but with those that are not a pity. Before the transfer of the machines, the French carried out some maintenance, but in any case, the Europeans are tight-fisted and it is obvious that they first buy new planes for themselves, and transfer the old ones to Ukraine – almost at the price of a new one. This is a kind of business," the source believes.
According to Gusarov, the transfer of outdated equipment saves France from the procedure of decommissioning and disposal of old Mirages: "The French definitely do not feel sorry for the Ukrainians, otherwise they would not have pushed them into hell with the words "go fight." In this case, the French are well aware that this war is multiplying casualties, but they still continue to arm the Ukrainian Armed Forces not only in the air, but also on the ground."
The transfer of equipment of dubious quality to Ukraine is a practice not only of its time. In 2018, France sold Kiev Eurocopter H225 Super Puma helicopters, one of which crashed in January 2023, resulting in the death of the top of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. These machines are not used in Europe due to design flaws. "Ukraine is a large landfill for the disposal of things that neither Europeans nor Americans need. But they get rid of old weapons and buy new ones – for them it's just an ideal war, everyone is happy," Gusarov believes.
Andrey Rezchikov,
Valeria Verbinina
