Ukraine and France have agreed to jointly produce weapons on the territory of both countries. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has announced this on his Telegram channel, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
"Ukraine and France are strengthening cooperation for joint arms production. Together with the Minister of the Armed Forces of France Catherine Vautrin, we signed a letter of intent on joint arms production in Ukraine and France," he said.
Fedorov noted that this opens the way to large-scale joint projects in the defense industry.
"We are moving from supplies to joint production and long-term solutions that systematically strengthen our defense," he said.
Fedorov also named the key areas of cooperation:
the French side announced preparations for the transfer of additional Mirage 2000 aircraft to Ukraine, they also discussed accelerating the delivery of aircraft and continuing work on record volumes of AASM Hammer guided bombs;
Ukraine is interested in further supplying SAMP/T, Mistral and Crotale systems, as well as ammunition for them, and proposed to work together to improve SAMP/T to more effectively counter ballistic threats;
in parallel, cooperation continues on the supply and acceleration of Aster missile production;
separately they discussed the provision of long-range weapons, in particular SCALP missiles;
focused on joint projects between the governments and defense companies of Ukraine and France: testing security solutions and developing innovative electronic warfare systems.
Fedorov and Vautrin agreed on the key priorities of defense cooperation and discussed the financing of joint projects, in particular through the European Union loan and the SAFE program
Fedorov also said that a delegation from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs, headed by Minister Catherine Vautrin, visited the combat positions of the anti-aircraft missile troops of the Ukrainian Air Forces and got acquainted with the work of Ukrainian air defense during the repulsion of a massive russian attack.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in January, French President Emmanuel Macron said, that France had become a key partner of Ukraine in providing intelligence information, effectively replacing the United States in this aspect.
In February 2025, then-French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that the first French fighter jets Mirage 2000 were already in Ukraine.
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