According to the Ukrainian Air Force, at the time of the incident, the pilot promptly reported the equipment failure to the flight manager and safely dropped the safety escape seat from the aircraft.
No casualties were reported afterwards and the pilot is in stable condition. The Ukrainian Air Force added that the pilots had "acted proficiently" and followed the necessary emergency procedures.
A special committee has been set up to investigate the cause of the incident.
Commenting on the incident, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "Unfortunately, we lost the fighter jet," and affirmed that the Mirage 2000 that crashed was not shot down by Russia.
The Mirage 2000 fighters that Ukraine is currently using are part of a military aid package announced by France in June 2024. This package also includes pilot training.
Notably, Ukraine only received the first Mirage 2000s in February 2025 and began putting them on the battlefield a month later.
With the recent technical problem, many experts cannot help but be skeptical about the level of proficiency of Ukrainian pilots in controlling Mirage 2000, and believe that Kiev is wasting military aid resources.
The Mirage 2000 is a fourth-generation hypersonic fighter, first introduced by Dassault Aviation in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, the Mirage 2000-5 variation, introduced in 1999, has an upgraded aerial electronics system, improved air-to-air and air-to-ground combat capabilities, along with advanced sensors and control systems.
