The Netherlands and Denmark have announced they will donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets between them to Ukraine once pilot training has been satisfactorily completed, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited both countries after months of entreaties to bolster the Ukrainian air force.
“Mark Rutte and I reached an agreement on the number of F-16s to be transferred to Ukraine once our pilots and engineers have completed their training,” he wrote.
As a result the western fighter jets are not expected to be ready to fly combat missions in Ukraine until well into 2024, by which time the war could have been going on for two years.
Ukraine has a small air force, which is made up of Soviet standard planes that can only run a dozen or so low-risk combat missions a day because they are outnumbered by the Russian equivalent.
Although Moscow uses its own jets relatively conservatively in frontline areas, the size of its air force means it poses a far greater threat.
Rutte, however, said on Sunday that “military training will start in the very near future” – although it is possible Reznikov was referring to the English language lessons that are seen as prerequisite.
The original article contains 606 words, the summary contains 198 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Netherlands and Denmark have announced they will donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets between them to Ukraine once pilot training has been satisfactorily completed, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited both countries after months of entreaties to bolster the Ukrainian air force.
“Mark Rutte and I reached an agreement on the number of F-16s to be transferred to Ukraine once our pilots and engineers have completed their training,” he wrote.
As a result the western fighter jets are not expected to be ready to fly combat missions in Ukraine until well into 2024, by which time the war could have been going on for two years.
Ukraine has a small air force, which is made up of Soviet standard planes that can only run a dozen or so low-risk combat missions a day because they are outnumbered by the Russian equivalent.
Although Moscow uses its own jets relatively conservatively in frontline areas, the size of its air force means it poses a far greater threat.
Rutte, however, said on Sunday that “military training will start in the very near future” – although it is possible Reznikov was referring to the English language lessons that are seen as prerequisite.
The original article contains 606 words, the summary contains 198 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!