WASHINGTON – Ukrainian pilots will take to the skies in American-made F-16 fighter jets in the coming weeks to deter Russian airstrikes, the leaders of the US, Denmark and the Netherlands announced Wednesday.
Kyiv is set to receive 78 F-16s from a consortium of NATO countries who got President Biden’s permission last year to dispatch the American-made aircraft and train Ukrainian pilots.
“The transfer process for these F-16s is now underway, and Ukraine will be flying operational F-16s this summer,” Biden, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a joint statement.
Denmark and the Netherlands previously announced that they would donate 42 of the 78 promised F-16s to Ukraine, while Belgium is sending another 30. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre also announced Wednesday that Oslo would donate six F-16s from its inventory.
While Biden approved training Ukrainian pilots on the aircraft and OK’d other countries donating the jets in May 2023, it’s taken more than a year to deliver the systems to the battlefield, partly due to the amount of time it’s taken to train the pilots, US officials have said.
While US defense experts have told The Post that Kyiv likely will not use F-16s for “dogfighting” with Russia jets, Yuriy Sak, a former adviser to Ukraine’s defense ministry, said their primary mission would be to deter Moscow’s aerial assaults.
“The most important function of those F-16s will be its integration into our air-defense system,” Sak, now an adviser to Kyiv’s Minister of Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin.
“Essentially, we look at F-16s first and foremost as a flying air defense system that is capable of simply decreasing the amount of attacks – aerial attacks, missiles, drones – that Russia is carrying out on Ukraine.”
Currently, Ukraine relies on older aircraft, including the Soviet-made MiG29 and Russian Sukhoi jets – to counter Moscow’s capabilities. F-16s, however, have newer technology and better targeting capabilities to track and strike down other jets in the air.
“F-16 radars will allow them to see Russian planes even at the time of takeoff,” Sak told The Post. “And that means that Russian fighter and bomber pilots [that] the Russians use to launch glide bombs will not feel so confident.
“At the moment, it’s a free run for them, you know?” he added. “They just take off, launch these bombs and go have a cup of tea.”
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has pleaded since Russia began its invasion in February 2022 for NATO members to donate F-16s to his forces.
Biden had been hesitant to sign off on sending the jets, with the administration citing fears of “escalating tensions” with Russia.