AMSTERDAM: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the “historic” supply of F-16 aircraft by the Netherlands and Denmark which is expected to help Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Moscow, CNN reported on Sunday.
The Netherlands and Denmark will be providing Ukraine with long-anticipated F-16 aircraft after the US approved sending the aircraft to Kyiv allowing Ukrainian pilots to begin training on the fighter jets.
F-16s are single-engine, multi-role jet aircraft, meaning they can be used in air-to-air or ground-attack missions.
Notably, Kyiv has urgently been calling on its Western allies to provide F-16 jets, as its slow-moving counteroffensive is hampered by Russian air superiority, according to CNN.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Zelenskyy at Eindhoven airport in the Netherlands, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that his country would “commit to delivering F-16 aircraft to Ukraine once the conditions for such a transfer have been met.”
Zelenskyy hailed the agreement as “historic” and “the most important” one yet.
“The Netherlands became the first country to agree to provide Ukraine with F-16s after training. I am very grateful,” CNN quoted him as saying.
He said that Ukraine would get 42 F-16 fighter jets after training for Ukrainian pilots and engineers is completed, according to his agreement with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Kyiv Independent reported.
“And this is only the beginning,” Zelenskyy added.
He further ruled out any possibility of “giving away” Ukrainian territory in return for peace.
“Ukraine will not exchange its territory with Russia in a potential peace deal,” Kyiv Independent quoted Zelenskyy as saying at the press conference on Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on August 20 that Ukraine would get 42 F-16 fighter jets after training for Ukrainian pilots and engineers is completed, according to his agreement with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “And this is only the beginning,” Zelensky added.
However, even with this agreement, it will take months until Ukraine will be able to use these jets.
Earlier on Sunday, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in a statement stated that it had agreed to provide F-16s. Conditions for the transfer include training Ukrainian personnel, setting up infrastructure and logistics, and receiving the necessary authorization, it said.
But, it is not clear yet how many aircraft will be provided by the Netherlands, CNN reported.
“At this moment, the Netherlands still owns 42 F-16s. Out of these 42, we need planes to help training in Denmark and later on in Romania,” Rutte said.
He added that the Netherlands would look into whether all of the remaining planes could be supplied but stated that he could not yet give a definitive number
After his visit to the Netherlands, Zelenskyy went to Denmark where he met Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
“Today we announce that we will provide 19 F-16 jets to Ukraine, we believe Danish fighter jets will help protect your skies,” Frederiksen said.
“The aim of this delivery is to protect Ukraine. We plan to provide the jets closer to the new year, about six of them, then eight in the next year and then another five,” CNN quoted her as saying.
The meetings come after a US official on Friday said the US had committed to approving the transfer of F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine as soon as training is complete.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Saturday that Ukrainian pilots had begun training.
Meanwhile, the US decision of approving the transfer of F-16s marks a sharp turnaround by the Biden administration, which for the last year had refused to approve any transfer of the aircraft or conduct training for fear that it could escalate tensions with Russia. The change indicates a new sense of urgency from Washington to get fighter jets to the battlefield as soon as possible, amid growing concerns about the prospects for Kyiv’s slow-going counteroffensive, according to Politico.
Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Moscow will consider the supply of F-16s to Ukraine as “a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere” because of the jets’ ability to carry nuclear weapons. On Friday, he renewed the warning that in providing arms to Ukraine, the NATO allies risk entering “a situation of direct armed confrontation of nuclear powers,” Politico reported. (ANI)