French Mirage fighters, Dutch F-16s arrive in Ukraine
Feb. 6 (UPI) -- France said Thursday it has sent the first of the promised Mirage jet fighters to Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced in June 2024 that Ukraine would get the jets and French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu in a statement on X that "the first of them arrived in Ukraine today."
"With Ukrainian pilots on board who had been trained for several months in France, they will now participate in defending the skies of Ukraine," Lecornu said.
The total number of French Mirages pledged to Ukraine or already there has not been revealed. The Mirage is a fourth-geenration multi-role supersonic jet.
Ukraine Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Thursday that the first Dutch F-16 fighters had also arrived in Ukraine.
"These modern combat vehicles are already in Ukraine and will soon begin performing combat missions, strengthening our defense and ability to effectively resist Russian aggression," Umerov said in a social media post.
That, of course, is the proper thing to say, even if he means that they will blow the Hell out of the Kursk region of Russia.
The Mirage 2000-5, introduced in 1999, is an upgraded version of the fighter first made in the 1970s by the Dassault company.
The fighter has enhanced air-to-air and ground mission firing capabilities, advanced avionics and a modern control system.
It is capable of firing the Scalp cruise missile, which France has also supplied to Ukraine. It can also carry Exocet anti-ship missiles and long-range bombs.
Both the French Mirage and Dutch F-16s can also be used for air defense against Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Moscow accuses Finland leaders of
‘whipping up war psychosis’
The Finnish authorities have been churning up an atmosphere of “war psychosis” and urging people to prepare for a possible war with Russia, according to Moscow’s ambassador to the EU country, Pavel Kuznetsov.
In an interview with RIA Novosti published on Thursday, Kuznetsov said that Finland’s leadership is instilling fear in the population using claims of “Russia’s aggressive plans.”
Helsinki is promoting various initiatives to strengthen military preparedness among civilians, the envoy said.
“There is increased media coverage of bomb shelter renovations, the expansion of shooting club networks, and the extension of the maximum age for reservists,” Kuznetsov observed, adding that such measures are being “widely promoted.”
According to the ambassador, such actions are part of the Finnish government’s attempt to justify the country’s “hasty” NATO accession and increased defense spending.
Of course, this is NATO strategy. The more frightened they can make Europeans, the more they will be willing to spend on War Industry inventories and the richer those oligarchs will be. But, I would really like to see someone investigate to see who in Finland is suddenly becoming filthy rich, because someone is.
Finland, which shares an almost 1,300-kilometer-long border with Russia, officially joined the US-led military bloc in April 2023 following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The Finnish government has since strengthened its defense policies, including expanding military training and civil preparedness programs.
Multiple outlets have reported a sharp rise in interest among Finns in weapons training. Shooting ranges have seen membership soar, and the government has announced plans to open more than 300 new shooting facilities to encourage the trend.
In November 2024, Finland issued guidance on how to prepare for an armed conflict, emphasizing the importance of readiness in the face of potential threats.
Several other Nordic countries have also published information advising their populations on how to prepare for a possible war or other unexpected crises.
Sweden has sent out millions of updated booklets entitled “In case of crisis or war,” while Norway has issued pamphlets urging people to be prepared to survive on their own for a week in the event of extreme weather, war, or other threats.
Denmark’s emergency management agency has informed the public how much water, food, and medicine individuals need to get through a crisis lasting three days. In December, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a local broadcaster that she has been stocking canned food and other essentials in case of a Russian attack.
NATO has long declared Russia to be a direct threat, and Western officials have repeatedly claimed that if Moscow wins the Ukraine conflict, it could attack other European countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed any possibility of a military advance against NATO as “nonsense.”
Putin told US journalist Tucker Carlson last February that the bloc’s leaders are trying to scare their people with an imaginary threat from Moscow, but that “smart people understand perfectly well that this is a fake.”
At the same time, Russia has repeatedly warned against what it describes as NATO’s unprecedented military activity near its western borders in recent years.
Ukraine selling US weapons to Mexican drug cartels
– Tucker Carlson
A significant portion of the weapons Washington has provided to Kiev as military aid in its conflict with Russia ends up in the hands of America’s “actual enemies,” including Mexican drug cartels, US journalist Tucker Carlson has claimed.
Up to half of the weapons sent by the US to Ukraine end up on international black markets, the former Fox News host said on Monday during an interview with retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Daniel Davis.
“The Ukrainian military is selling a huge percentage – up to half – of the arms that we send them. I know this for a fact,” Carlson claimed, without disclosing his sources or providing specific evidence.
Carlson said Washington is providing Kiev with “hundreds of billions of dollars” worth of arms, a significant portion of which is being “stolen and sold to our actual enemies,” including “drug cartels on our border.” He also claimed that weapons from Ukraine can easily be purchased online, describing the situation as a “crime” and a “nightmare.”
Since 2022, the US Congress has authorized approximately $175 billion in aid for Ukraine. However, a large portion of that funding has reportedly been allocated to American industries and other US government activities related to the conflict.
That is, War Industries! And they don't care who ends up with the guns as long as the inventory keeps moving. That's the whole purpose of the Ukraine war, that, and American LNG sales.
In January, US President Donald Trump claimed that Washington had spent “$200 billion more than the EU” on aid to Kiev. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky later stated that Kiev had received just over $75 billion in military and other forms of assistance from Washington, adding that he had no idea where Trump’s estimate of $200 billion originated or where it could have vanished.
He used the same number to accuse Canada of having a trade imbalance with the USA. It's a gross exaggeration with regard to Canada, but is likely closer to the truth in Ukraine as most of it disappeared anyway.
Moscow has warned that the unchecked supply of Western weapons to Ukraine has led to a large number of arms falling into the hands of organized criminal groups and extremists worldwide.
Western media outlets and officials have also acknowledged that weapons supplied to Kiev have ended up in criminal hands. In April 2022, Europol reported that its investigations indicated weapons were being trafficked out of Ukraine and into the EU to supply organized crime groups.
In October 2022, the Finnish authorities stated that weapons originally sent to Kiev had surfaced in the country and were acquired by local criminals. At the time, similar reports emerged from Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
In June 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Western anti-tank weapons intended for Ukraine had been found on Israel’s border, to be used against the Jewish state.
Several times over the past ten or twelve years I have reported that America was selling weapons to both sides of a war. Here, even with our ally.
In June 2024, Spanish media reported that criminal gangs in southern Spain had obtained modern military-grade weapons allegedly smuggled from Ukraine.
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