Smiling on the tarmac of an airbase outside Paris, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a deal with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday for his country to buy as many as 100 of France's most advanced Rafale fighter jets over the next decade.

The aircraft is the best military jet that France has for air-to-air combat, missile interceptions and for longer-range strikes — capabilities that are crucial to defend Ukraine's cities from Russia's relentless missile and drone attacks going into the winter.

"It will be the greatest air defense — one of the greatest in the world," Zelenskyy told reporters after he signed the letter of intent for the purchase with Macron at the Villacoublay military airbase. The Ukrainian president has pushed his Western partners for months to b

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