First F-16 jet fighters on their way to Ukraine, US and allies say
Warplanes are aimed at helping Kyiv’s air defences and pushing back Russian forces on the front lines.
More than a year after President Joe Biden vowed to provide F-16 jet fighters to Ukraine, the first planes are being delivered, boosting Kyiv’s capability to shoot down Russian missiles and attack its ground forces.
Dozens of the jet fighters are being transferred to Ukraine and will be operational later this summer, the US, Dutch and Danish governments said overnight on Wednesday. In total, 80 F-16s will eventually be provided to Kyiv, according to a US official.
The announcement of the initial deliveries on the second day of the NATO summit in Washington underscored the push by the 32-member alliance to publicise the steps it is taking to beef-up Ukraine’s military as it seeks to hold back Russian forces.
The F-16s won’t be a “game-changer” but they will provide Ukraine with a greater capability to deny Russia the use of its own aircraft and permit “deep-strike attacks”, said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
The US and its allies have steadily transferred more advanced weapons to Ukraine in hopes of shifting the momentum of the war in Kyiv’s favour. Providing the F-16s requires training Ukrainian pilots to fly the planes as well as detailed agreements on how they will be used and armed.
The Danish and Dutch governments have begun transferring aircraft to Kyiv, according to a statement by Mr Biden, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The Dutch have promised an initial batch of 24 jets, while Denmark has said it would send 19.
“Those jets will be flying in the skies of Ukraine this summer to make sure that Ukraine can continue to effectively defend itself from the Russian aggression,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a NATO event.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Ukrainian F-16 pilots would be permitted to fire US-provided air-to-air missiles into Russian territory to shoot down incoming missiles and enemy aircraft. Some of the countries providing aircraft are prohibiting Ukraine from flying their jets in Russian territory, and countries might also limit whether the F-16s can fire air-to-ground missiles into Russia.
Belgium, which plans to provide 30 aircraft in total to Kyiv, will restrict its jets to flying over Ukrainian territory, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said. He declined to answer whether the aircraft would be allowed to shoot into Russian territory. Mr Eide declined to say whether the six F-16s Norway was donating initially would be permitted to fly into Russian airspace.
The first deliveries come two days after the largest Russian missile attack on Ukraine in months – a strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv that killed at least 33 people, wounded more than 100 and was likely timed as a signal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the NATO summit, Ukrainian officials said.
NATO leaders reaffirmed the long-term goal of bringing Ukraine into the alliance in a joint statement on Wednesday. The summit communique declared the alliance supports Ukraine’s “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.”
Membership for Ukraine will only come “when Allies agree and conditions are met,” the statement said. Ukraine needs to improve the interoperability of its forces with the alliance as well as making progress on additional democratic and security sector reforms, it said.
Mr Biden said in March last year that the US would support an effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly Western jet fighters, including F-16s. Until then, the US had said that providing Ukraine with F-16s would be too costly and require extensive training.
Ukrainian officials say the combat planes will help Kyiv knock down Russian missiles targeting Ukrainian cities and help Kyiv’s forces push back Moscow’s forces on the front lines. The aircraft can be equipped with air-to-air missiles capable of hitting targets inside Russia.
It isn’t yet clear if Ukraine will receive such missiles in sufficient numbers to bolster its defences significantly. Many NATO countries are hesitant to part with AIM-120 medium air-to-air missiles and other advanced weaponry, fearing too much depletion of their stocks.
The Wall Street Journal
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