For several weeks, and like two years ago, OSCE observers from Operation Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, or SMM, noted very significant movements of troops and materials on both sides of the demarcation line between Ukraine and the secessionist province of Donbass supported by Moscow. Numerous violations of the ceasefire were also observed these last days in this zone, raising fears of the resumption of the fighting now that the grounds begin to evacuate the surplus water related to the winter snowmelt. It is in this extremely tense context that French President Emmanuel Macron will soon visit Kiev to discuss possible cooperation between France and Ukraine with his counterpart President Volodymyr Zelensky, Paris being one of the members of the “Normandy Format”. Intended to find a peaceful solution between Ukraine and Russia in this conflict, as well as on the subject of the annexation of Crimea by Moscow.
More according to the Intelligence Online website, another file will be under the arm of the French president during this visit, a proposal to sell combat planes Rafale to Ukraine in order to modernize its air forces. Kiev has indeed launched in 2020 a plan aiming to acquire in the short term a fleet of 6 to 12 modern combat aircraft, prefiguring a larger order of around 2020 aircraft in the second half of the decade 27. The objective set by the Ukrainian authorities is to replace the fleet fighter aircraft from the Soviet area which today consists of Su-24 fighters, Su-25 and Su-29 bomber, and a few Mig-XNUMXs, all of these aircraft suffering from significant maintenance and repair difficulties. poor availability linked to the very degraded relations between Kiev and Moscow.
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