The West will begin delivering F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this summer, Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren said in an interview with Reuters.

“I can say with great confidence that we will begin deliveries of F-16s this summer... First, Denmark, we have a schedule... and in the second half of the year, Dutch F-16s will go there (to Ukraine. -

RT

),” Ollongren stated.

According to Reuters, the first ten F-16 fighters promised to Kyiv will be delivered by Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States after the launch of the pilot training program.

At the same time, as Ollongren noted, although Ukraine has many friendly countries in Europe, it would be difficult to move forward on the issue of providing assistance to Kyiv without US support. Thus, she commented to journalists on the suspension of military support from the United States to Ukraine against the backdrop of Republicans in Congress blocking a bill to allocate the next tranche for military support to Kyiv.

“It wouldn’t be easy, and I hope that’s not the direction we go,” she said.

Earlier, at a meeting of the contact group on support for Ukraine at Ramstein airbase, Ollongren said that the Netherlands would allocate €150 million for the purchase of air-to-ground guided missiles that can be launched from the F-16. In an interview with Reuters, she also noted that ammunition production in Europe will be significantly increased by the end of the year in order to equip the Armed Forces with them.

“We have to be realistic and consider the possibility that the war could be long and that it is better to plan for a long war,” she said.

Earlier, Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder, without giving specific dates, told reporters that the United States expects to transfer F-16 fighters to Kyiv in 2024. 

Aviation Alliance

Let us remind you that the United States, together with Denmark and the Netherlands, coordinates the work of the aviation alliance, a coalition that resolves issues of supplying Western fighters to Ukraine, including the F-16. Amsterdam intends to transfer a total of 24 F-16 aircraft to Kyiv. Copenhagen wants to supply 19 of these machines. The Belgian authorities also announced plans to send fighters to Ukraine, but were unable to indicate their exact number, citing the fact that this would depend on the number of new F-35s that the kingdom would receive to replace the F-16s. At the same time, the West has repeatedly postponed the transfer of these fighters to Kyiv. For example, Denmark, which plans to deliver aircraft in the second half of this year, previously expressed hope for their appearance in Ukraine this spring.

Western countries are postponing the supply of F-16 fighters to Kyiv because they do not believe in the successes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the front, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter expressed his opinion on January 20 in an interview with RIA Novosti.

  • Ukrainian pilots, training flight on F-16

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Gianluca Vannicelli

A few days later, Advisor to the Command of the Ukrainian Air Forces Yuriy Ignat said that Western partners were allegedly ready to transfer F-16 fighters to Kyiv, but not everything was ready for their receipt and combat use in Ukraine. According to him, we are talking about pilots, infrastructure and engineers.

Later, in early February, the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Alexei Danilov announced that infrastructure was being prepared in Ukraine to receive F-16 fighters. According to him, in this matter, the partners are providing the Kyiv regime with “maximum assistance” and everything is going “according to schedule and plan.”

At the same time, back in June 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), emphasized that the supply of American F-16 fighter jets will not help Ukraine and the West during the special operation.

“Deliveries of heavy military equipment are underway, the option of supplying aircraft is now being considered... Today, several tanks (APU) were destroyed, including the Leopard... They are on fire. F-16s will burn in the same way, there is no doubt,” the head of Russia expressed confidence.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also acknowledged the lack of breakthrough prospects for the Ukrainian Armed Forces using the F-16. Speaking on February 15 following a meeting in Brussels of the heads of the defense ministries of the alliance countries, he said that the supply of American F-16 fighters to Ukrainian troops would not be able to radically change the situation at the front.

“Breakages and losses are inevitable”

As Pavel Feldman, Candidate of Political Sciences, Associate Professor at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations, noted, the West could supply a trial batch of F-16 fighter-bombers to Kiev now, but in Ukraine the complex of problems associated with their operation has still not been resolved.

“At any airfield in Ukraine, these vehicles will be vulnerable to ballistic and cruise missiles of the Russian Armed Forces. Consequently, the primary tasks of the Zelensky regime are to saturate airfields with air defense systems, which are critically lacking on the front line, to create concrete aircraft hangars, and to adapt runways for American-made aircraft. The question of the availability of trained Ukrainian pilots, support personnel and equipment necessary to service the F-16 also remains open,” Feldman noted in a commentary to RT.

However, it cannot be ruled out that by the summer of 2024 these tasks will be solved by Kiev one way or another, the expert believes. At the same time, according to him, the symbolic significance of the F-16 for Ukraine is much higher than the real effect of their combat use.

“The appearance of American combat aircraft in the skies over Ukraine has been used by local propagandists for a year and a half now as a symbol of change, marking the onset of a supposed turning point. Warmed up by the promises of unprecedented victories, society is waiting for deliveries of F-16s like manna from heaven, but this event is unlikely to radically change the situation in the air and on the ground for the Kyiv regime. In any case, few cars will arrive, and their modification will be outdated. Breakdowns and losses during operation are inevitable,” Feldman said.

Professor at the Institute of Media at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, candidate of political sciences Dmitry Evstafiev also admits the possibility that the West may begin deliveries of F-16 fighters this summer.

“This statement by the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands looks more or less realistic from the point of view of at least the basic training of Ukrainian pilots of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and logistics routes. This scheme, which is outlined, should be taken seriously, since it differs from past fantasy statements by Western politicians,” Evstafiev noted in an interview with RT.

In his opinion, the postponement of F-16 deliveries to Ukraine may be due to a change in Western strategy.

“All previous supply schemes for these fighters, apparently, were based on the fact that the F-16s would be based on the territory of NATO countries, primarily Poland and Romania. And the West expected to use the territory of Ukraine only as a space for jumping, where it wanted to equip only temporary airfields where refueling and mounting of weapons would be carried out. But the active actions of the Russian side on the diplomatic and political fronts convinced Western countries that this was already crossing the line of war and that Russia would indeed in this case strike at the home airfield. Therefore, in the West they decided to abandon such a scheme,” explained Evstafiev.

At the same time, according to the expert, the West has failed to fully adequately train Ukrainian pilots, and therefore the F-16 aircraft will be flown by mercenaries from NATO countries.

  • F-16 fighters

  • AFP

“We are talking about representatives of the bloc states who will be formally dismissed from the armed forces, but who have all the necessary skills to fly Western fighters. Ukrainian pilots of much lower qualifications will be used for other tasks. At the same time, it is impossible to prepare technical support services quickly, much less on the ground. Therefore, at the airfields, which will now be intensively prepared to receive F-16s, personnel from NATO countries will work,” the analyst believes.

However, experts agree that the transfer of F-16 fighters to Ukraine really cannot significantly influence the course of hostilities.

“These fighters in the declared quantity are not able to turn the tide of the conflict. The Russian Armed Forces have all the necessary means to effectively shoot down F-16s. Another thing is that the supply of such fighters is an additional step by the West towards escalation, which increases the likelihood of direct involvement of European NATO countries in this conflict,” Evstafiev concluded.