WASHINGTON – Ukrainian pilots will take to the skies in U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets in the coming weeks to thwart Russian airstrikes, the leaders of the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands said Wednesday.
Kyiv is set to receive 78 F-16s from a coalition of NATO nations that received permission from President Biden last year to send American-made aircraft and train Ukrainian pilots.
“The process to transfer these F-16s is currently underway, and Ukraine is on track to fly operational F-16s this summer,” President Biden, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schauff and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a joint statement.
Denmark and the Netherlands have said they will donate 42 of the 78 F-16s they have pledged to Ukraine, and Belgium plans to send another 30. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Storre also announced Wednesday that Oslo would donate six of its F-16s.
President Biden approved training Ukrainian pilots on the plane in May 2023 and also approved donating the aircraft to other countries, but it has taken more than a year to deliver the system to the battlefield, in part because of the time it takes to train pilots, U.S. officials have said.
U.S. defense experts told The Post that Kiev was unlikely to use the F-16s in “dogfights” with Russian fighter jets, but Yuriy Sakh, a former adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, said the F-16s’ primary mission was to thwart air attacks on Moscow.
“The F-16’s most important function will be its integration into our country’s air defense system,” said Sak, who is now an adviser to Kyiv’s Minister of Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin.
“Basically, we are looking at the F-16 primarily as a flying air defense system that can reduce the number of attacks (air attacks, missiles, drones) that Russia is conducting against Ukraine.”
Currently, Ukraine relies on older aircraft, such as the Soviet-made MiG-29 and Russian Sukhoi fighter jets, to counter Moscow’s capabilities, but the F-16s have newer technology and better targeting capabilities to track and shoot down other fighters in the air.
“The F-16’s radar can see the Russian planes even when they’re taking off,” Sack told the Post. “That means Russian fighter and bomber pilots can [that] It would be less confident in the weapons Russia is using to launch its glide bombs.
“At the moment they’re free to do whatever they want,” he added. “They just fly off, set off a bomb and go for a cup of tea.”
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has been appealing to NATO allies to donate F-16s to his country’s military since Russia began its invasion in February 2022.
Biden had been hesitant to approve the deployment of the fighter jets, with his administration citing concerns about “rising tensions” with Russia.
