Denmark to provide Ukraine with additional F-16s by end of 2024
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Previously, Denmark promised to equip Kiev with 19 F-16s, with six arriving in the initial batch.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, and Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sit in a F-16 fighter jet at Skrydstrup Airbase in Vojens, Denmark, on August 20, 2023. (AP)
Denmark will send six additional F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine by the end of 2024, according to Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, as reported by Ritzau.
The quantity of additional aircraft and their specific delivery dates are not released for security reasons, as per the article.
Previously, Denmark promised to equip Kiev with 19 F-16s, with six arriving in the initial batch.
According to The Economist, Kiev has acquired ten F-16s, which will rise to twenty by the end of 2024. Ukraine can eventually expect to have 79 such planes. A single F-16 was destroyed in Ukraine at the end of August. According to The Wall Street Journal, the event aroused concerns in Western countries about the quality of Ukrainian military pilots' rapid training.
Last month, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that F-16 fighter planes would not become a magical pill that might affect the course of fighting and "will be consistently destroyed by the Russian armed forces."
In late August, a US-made F-16 fighter plane crashed in Ukraine and initial accounts indicated the plane was not shot down by Russia, even though the incident happened during a large Russian missile blitz over the nation on Monday, the official added. Rather, the crash was blamed on a "pilot error".
The crash is a severe setback for Kiev, who for months demanded the planes until Biden eventually gave the green light for European countries to transfer the aircraft last year.
Kiev expects that the modern Western aircraft would offer its forces an advantage on the battlefield, notably by shooting down incoming Russian missiles and protecting troops on the front lines. However, they are vulnerable to Russian air defense missiles and provide a valuable target for Moscow's military.
On August 4, Zelensky claimed that the first batch of the promised 80 F-16s had landed in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force would not disclose specific numbers, but a second US source claimed six aircraft had arrived and Ukraine had six pilots qualified to fly them.
In early August, Politico reported that Western efforts to train Ukrainian pilots to fly advanced F-16 jets are being hampered by the service members’ poor English language skills.
According to sources, of Ukraine's 32 pilots, only 8 had enough English proficiency to partake in a future training program.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in July that Russia will consider the presence of F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine sent from the West as a "nuclear" threat due to their capacity to carry atomic weapons, therefore representing a direct threat to Russia.
"Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons. No amount of assurances will help here," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
