The Ukrainian president said on Monday he was convinced Russia would lose the war, speaking to a crowd in Copenhagen after Denmark and the Netherlands promised to send him F-16 fighter jets.
“Today we are convinced that Russia will lose this war,” Volodymyr Zelensky told the crowd near parliament after addressing lawmakers.
Denmark will deliver 19 US fighter jets to kyiv, six of which will be by the end of the year, followed by eight in 2024 and five in 2025, according to the Copenhagen government.
Zelensky said the Netherlands would also supply 42 F-16 fighters to kyiv, though Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was reluctant to give an exact number.
“The most important thing is what we are showing with our victory, our cooperation. Together we are showing that life has value, that people matter,” Zelensky told the crowd.
“Freedom is important, Europe is important,” he added, quoted by the French agency AFP.
Zelensky traveled to the Netherlands and Denmark on Sunday to examine the planes that kyiv has been ordering since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The United States on Friday approved the shipment of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, following training for Ukrainian pilots.
Washington’s authorization was necessary because the planes were manufactured in the United States.
Denmark and the Netherlands are members of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), as well as belonging to the European Union (EU).
The Russian ambassador in Copenhagen, Vladimir Barbine, today denounced the Danish government’s decision as “an escalation of the conflict.”
“Hiding behind the idea that Ukraine should determine the terms of peace for itself, Denmark seeks, through its actions and words, to leave Ukraine with no alternative but to continue the military confrontation with Russia,” he said.
The diplomat added that the decision “pushes Ukraine into the abyss and condemns its people to new victims.”
In July, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had warned against handing over the F-16s, saying Moscow would consider them a nuclear threat.
In response to criticism from Moscow, Danish Defense Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen reaffirmed today that weapons delivered to kyiv can only be used on Ukrainian territory.
“Weapons are handed over on the condition that they are used to expel the enemy from the territory of Ukraine. Nothing more than that,” Ellemann-Jensen told local media.
“These are the conditions, whether they are tanks, combat planes or anything else. That is the message that Ukraine will receive,” he added, according to the Spanish news agency Europa Press.
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June to try to recapture Russian-conquered territory, but has admitted that troops are advancing slowly and with modest results.
In addition to weaponry, kyiv’s Western allies have enacted sanctions against Moscow to try to reduce Russia’s ability to finance the war effort in Ukraine.
The number of civilian and military casualties from the war in Ukraine is unknown, but several sources, including the UN, have admitted that they will be high.
Source: TSF
