The China Mail - Macron, Zelensky sign accord for Ukraine to buy French fighter jets

The letter of intent inked by the two leaders sets out possible future contracts for Ukraine to acquire 100 Rafale fighter jets "with their associated weapons", the French presidency said.

It also lays out deals for the new generation SAMP-T air defence systems which are under development, radar systems and drones.

The accord signed at France's Villacoublay air base is not a purchase and sales contract and is projected to be realised "over a timeframe of about 10 years", the presidency added.

Zelensky, who has suffered setbacks over the last week due to a corruption scandal at home and Russian forces closing in on the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, wrote on X ahead of meeting Macron that the accord would be a "historic deal".

"A great day," Macron wrote in a brief post on X in French and Ukrainian over a picture of the deal being signed.

The aim is to "enable it (Kyiv) to acquire the systems it needs to respond to Russian aggression", added a French presidential official, asking not to be named.

The Ukrainian president had already signed a letter of intent last month to acquire 100 to 150 Swedish Gripen fighter jets.

France has delivered Mirage fighter jets to Kyiv, but until now there had been no talk of Ukraine acquiring the Rafale, the crown jewel of French combat aviation.

- Ukraine on backfoot -

The visit by Zelensky to France is his ninth since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It comes ahead of what analysts predict will be a tough winter for Kyiv as Moscow presses on the battlefield.

Overnight, Russian strikes killed three people in a city in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, its military administration chief said. Seven people were killed after Russia struck apartment blocks across the capital Kyiv on Friday.

The Russian army seized three more villages across eastern Ukraine, the defence ministry in Moscow said Monday, the latest in its grinding advance.

Efforts by US President Donald Trump to force a peace deal have stalled as Moscow has rejected calls for a ceasefire and refused to drop hardline territorial demands.

Zelensky at the weekend announced an overhaul of state-owned energy companies after a corruption scandal, ordering two ministers to resign and sanctioning a former business partner who was named as its mastermind.

France's Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad said in a television interview on Saturday that governments had to be "extraordinarily vigilant" about corruption as Ukraine presses its case to join the European Union.

Zelensky's visit is part of a brief tour of his western allies that saw him seal an energy deal with Greece on Sunday, and will include a visit to Spain on Tuesday.

Macron and Zelensky also visited the headquarters of a Ukraine multinational force that France and Britain are preparing in the event an international force is deployed in Ukraine after any ceasefire.

The headquarters at Mont Valerien, west of Paris, is where countries from the "coalition of the willing" organised by France and Britain have sent officers to prepare the force.

France says that 34 countries and Ukraine have already offered to take part.

A.Zhang--ThChM