Air War in Ukraine - First Mirage 2000 Loss
On both the battlefield and the political front, many events took place during the observed period, but the overall situation between July 1 and July 31, 2025 did not change significantly. The Ukrainian Air Force suffered another notable loss when it lost its first Mirage 2000-5F fighter in an accident. France had supplied these aircraft between February and March of this year.
Miro Barič
First Mirage 2000 Loss
On both the battlefield and the political front, many events took place during the
observed period, but the overall situation between July 1 and July 31, 2025 did not
change significantly. The Ukrainian Air Force suffered another notable loss when
it lost its first Mirage 2000-5F fighter in an accident. France had supplied these
aircraft between February and March of this year.
Aerial War in Ukraine
Let‘s begin with a brief description of political
developments, which are closely linked to the
battlefield situation, as will be demonstrated
further by several examples. At the beginning
of the observed period, American President
Donald Trump confirmed that arms deliveries
to Ukraine had indeed been halted in June.
This was a decision made by Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth. The halted deliveries
included key equipment such as missiles
for Patriot air defense systems, Stinger
missiles, rockets for HIMARS systems, and
155 mm artillery ammunition. President Trump
reversed this decision and resumed deliveries,
but with one condition. The weapons were to
be purchased by European countries and then
delivered to Ukraine. Germany already agreed
to supply Kyiv with two additional Patriot
systems, and later Norway announced it would
help Berlin pay for them.
The American President also began losing
patience with his Russian counterpart Putin.
After a phone call with him, Trump expressed
disappointment and later gave Russia fifty
days to agree to a ceasefire, otherwise he
would impose tariffs as high as one hundred
percent on states that continued buying oil and
gas from Moscow. At the end of the observed
period Trump further shortened this ultimatum
to ten days. The result was a meeting in Alaska,
where Putin came to meet Trump. This summit
took place the following month, but since
it followed directly from these events, it is
mentioned here. It can be said that it brought
no tangible results, and from the Kremlin’s
side it was again only a delaying tactics and
a time-stretching game.
On the battlefield, the situation did not
change much. Russia continued trying to
attack and managed to advance, but only
slowly and at the cost of heavy losses. This
was true in particular in the Pokrovsk direction.
In contrast, in the Sumy region of Ukraine the
Russian offensive potential was exhausted and
Ukrainian armed forces slowly advanced back
toward the border.
Sad records
July in Ukrainian skies brought another sad
record. The number of Russian drone attacks
on Ukrainian cities was the highest since the
start of the invasion, and the figure had been
increasing for three months in a row. During
the observed period Russia launched a total of
6,297 drones, which was fifteen percent more
than the previous month. In addition, in July
Russia fired 198 missiles and cruise missiles,
the second highest number this year after June.
In the night of Friday July 4, the Russians
broke a record for the first time in this period
when they launched 539 Shahed kamikaze
drones and 11 missiles and cruise missiles
at Ukraine. The main target was Kyiv, where
even the building of the Polish consulate was
damaged. This was also the first of the political
connections mentioned earlier – the strike
came only a few hours after the phone call
between Putin and Trump and was probably
meant as a show of force. The very next night,
on Saturday July 5, a Russian strike on Odessa
also damaged the building of the Chinese
consulate.
The new record lasted only a few days,
and during the night of Wednesday July 9 the
Russians broke it again. They sent 728 drones
and 13 missiles and cruise missiles at Ukraine,
aiming mainly at Lutsk and Zhytomyr. Ukrainian
air defense shot down 303 drones and seven
cruise missiles, and jammers disabled another
415 drones. Another large attack came on the
night of Saturday July 12 and targeted western
Ukraine, especially Lviv, Lutsk and Chernivtsi.
Altogether 623 drones and other projectiles
were launched. In contrast, during the night of
Sunday July 13 everything was quiet. There was
not a single drone or missile in the air. Ukraine
had last experienced such a night on May 8,
but during the day the Russians compensated
for this and launched 60 Shahed drones.
When Trump threatened tariffs on states
that continued trading with Russia, the
response came during the night of Wednesday
July 16 with an attack of 400 drones against
This photo shows the training of Ukrainian pilots on the Mirage 2000-5F still in France, released by the French armed forces. The author of the
article is aware of two videos of Mirage fighters already flying over Ukraine, but they are of very poor quality and only reveal that the external
fuel tanks under the wings are painted yellow on the underside.
UKRAINE
INFO Eduard12
September 2025