The Netherlands and Denmark will deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which will be delivered when certain conditions are met, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Sunday.
The announcement, quoted by the US news agency AP, was made minutes after Rutte and Volodymyr Zelensky inspected two gray F-16 jets, parked in a hangar, and took place as part of the Ukrainian president’s visit to the Netherlands. , two days after the US authorized the deployment of American F-16 fighter jets in Kiev.
Zelensky landed around 12 noon (10 a.m. in Lisbon), a Dutch government spokeswoman told AFP, after the Ukrainian head of state was in Sweden on Saturday to discuss aspects of military cooperation in the war against Russia.
“We are going to discuss with the head of government the supply of F-16s to Ukraine to protect our population from Russian terror,” Zelensky had written in a message on the X social network, formerly known as Twitter.
Details of the delivery of the aircraft from the Netherlands to Ukraine are not yet known. The F-16 fighters were a recurring request by Volodymyr Zelensky for an ongoing counteroffensive aimed at driving Russian forces out of occupied areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Washington’s green light for the delivery of F-16s from Denmark and the Netherlands was announced on Friday and was a necessary step toward supplying US fighters, but it does not mean an immediate delivery given the need to train Ukrainian pilots. .
Ukraine has relied on weapons supplies from Western allies in the war that Russia started when it invaded the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
kyiv’s allies have also enacted sanctions against Russian interests to try to lessen Moscow’s ability to finance the war effort.
Source: TSF
