Ukraine has agreed on a roadmap to acquire 16 Rafale fighter jets from France, together with accompanying weapon systems, President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday. Deliveries are expected in 2028 or 2029, with pilot training beginning in the coming months.
The agreement was announced at a press conference in Paris, where Macron also confirmed that France will deliver a first batch of SAMP/T NG air-defense batteries to Ukraine along with complementary systems and missiles in the coming weeks.
“Ukraine has immediate needs, particularly in the anti-ballistic area,” Macron said.
The Rafale deal is part of a broader Ukrainian effort to rebuild its air force with Western platforms. In May, Ukraine signed an agreement to buy 20 new Gripen jets from Sweden, with Stockholm also planning to donate 16 older models next year. Ukraine already operates F-16s, used primarily for air defense against Russian cruise missiles and Shahed drones.
The Rafale acquisition has been in the works for some time. Ukraine signed a letter of intent for up to 100 Rafale jets in November 2025, alongside a separate letter of intent for up to 150 Gripen E jets in October 2025. The current 16-aircraft deal is a concrete first tranche.
Equally significant are the licensing agreements Ukraine secured. France has granted Ukraine licenses to manufacture in Ukraine the AASM glide-bomb kit, the Aster 30 air-defense interceptor (used in SAMP/T systems), and the SCALP/Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile. Local production would reduce Ukraine’s dependence on foreign deliveries and build a domestic defense industrial base.
Macron also linked the Rafale deal to Ukraine’s anti-ballistic missile efforts. Earlier Monday, nine European nations joined Ukraine in forming the Integrated Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition, which will support the Ukrainian-designed Freyja interceptor system. “The bilateral agreement is part of that, in addition to an initiative by Zelenskyy to create a coalition that will accelerate Ukraine’s anti-ballistic defense in a very concrete way,” Macron said.
The timeline is long, 2028 for the first Rafale deliveries, but the direction is clear. Ukraine is systematically replacing its Soviet-era air force with Western aircraft, building local production capacity for advanced munitions, and securing a web of bilateral and multilateral defense agreements that will tie European defense industries to Ukraine for years to come. Whether the war is over by the time the first Rafale arrives, these deals ensure Ukraine’s military will look very different from the one that went into battle in 2022.