The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has received with tremendous joy, a ‘historic’ decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to provide US-made F-16 fighter jets for his country to counter Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskyy spent months looking for the cutting-edge aircraft to bolster Ukraine’s air force from the Soviet era as it wages a gruelling counteroffensive against Russian forces in the east.
Washington announced its approval of the F-16 transfers on Friday, and training of Ukraine pilots is set to begin this month, which may allow Ukraine to begin deploying the jets in early 2024.
The decision is ‘absolutely historic, powerful and inspiring for us’, Zelenskyy said alongside Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during a visit to the Eindhoven airbase in the Netherlands on Sunday.
The Dutch air force has 42 F-16s and Rutte said the number provided to Kyiv would be finalised after talks with allies.
Later on Sunday, Zelenskyy travelled to Denmark’s Skrydstrup airbase and was greeted by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
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‘We also know that you need more and that is why today we announced that we will donate 19 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine,’ the Danish leader said.
Six of the jets will be delivered by the end of this year, eight next year, and five in 2025, Frederiksen said.
‘This is a very powerful support for us – training missions are already starting,’ Zelenskyy told journalists.
‘We are doing our best to get even more results for Ukraine. In particular, today we discussed the expansion of training missions. Ukraine’s sky shield is getting stronger.’
Alexandre Vautravers, an analyst and the editor-in-chief of the Swiss Military Review, said the F-16 development ‘is not a game changer but allows Ukraine to stay in the game’.
‘Until now, we can say that Ukraine received quite a number of combat aircraft, mostly MiG-29s, so it has been able to maintain the number of aircraft it started the war with,’ Vautravers told reporters.
‘But the Western countries have no more ex-Soviet airplanes to commit to this fight and, therefore, it will need to be Western airplanes from now on.’
Zelenskyy’s visit comes after a trip to Sweden on Saturday, when he discussed joint production of CV90 combat vehicles and training of Ukraine pilots for Gripen fighter jets with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.