Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Before the reality check of the European elections, France’s president seized the moment of D-Day’s 80th anniversary to pledge Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine, as well as training for their pilots and grants and loans worth €650 million for rebuilding Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Joe Biden made the far less reassuring promise not to “walk away” from Ukraine, but his earlier permission for Ukrainian forces to hit targets inside Russia with US weapons may have been acted on: there were reports at the weekend of a Ukrainian jet using a stand-off weapon against a military target near the Russian city of Belgorod for the first time. Will Mirage-2000s be game changers in the war? No and yes: this model is optimised for air combat, not for air-to-ground attack, so is most likely to be used against Russian fighter-bombers attacking Ukrainian forces and civilians with “glide” bombs. The symbolism of the pledge matters, but experts say Ukraine is already struggling to build the infrastructure needed for F-16s promised last year.