The Danish Ministry of Defense reported that it is working to prepare Ukraine to receive the first donation of Danish F-16 fighters this summer.
«It is difficult to set a fixed timetable for the donation of the F-16 fighters because there are several conditions that must be met before Ukraine can use the donated aircraft. However, I have informed the (Air Force) conciliation committee that we are working to ensure that everything goes smoothly this summer, when we hope to be able to deliver the first F-16 fighters to Ukraine if preparations go according to plan,» says Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
The first Danish F-16 combat aircraft are expected to be handed over to Ukraine this summer — @Forsvarsmin.
We are waiting for F-16s in the Ukrainian sky.
We prepare and train to use them as efficiently as possible.We are grateful to our Danish partners for their leadership… pic.twitter.com/WdfMKajI5z
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 22, 2024
The final delivery of the first Danish F-16 fighters depends, among other things, on the necessary Ukrainian pilots and support personnel being fully trained, and on the necessary logistics and infrastructure being in place in Ukraine. The international coalition of air forces supporting Ukraine is working hard to ensure this.
Denmark is leading the coalition together with the Netherlands and the United States since its inception in autumn 2023. The Air Force Capability Coalition is formed under the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group and is initially focused on providing an F-16 fighter capability in Ukraine.
See also: Netherlands donates six more F-16 fighters to Ukraine, after sale to Draken fell apart
NATO gives Kiev green light to use its F-16 fighters to attack Russian territory
On a related note, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during an interview with Free Europe radio that he does not yet know when Ukraine will start delivering F-16 fighters to Ukraine, as it depends on Ukrainian personnel being ready to use them effectively, but acknowledged that «the sooner, the better.»
But most importantly, Stoltenberg said that «Ukraine has the right to self-defense, including attacking legitimate Russian military targets outside Ukraine». A phrase framed within the context of the talk about F-16s, with which it is understood that NATO is raising the stakes and crossing a red line that until now was respected, that of prohibiting Ukraine from using Western-supplied weapons to attack Russia on its own territory, in order to avoid a spillover of the conflict.
As they say, the ball is (or will be) in Putin’s court, who will have to analyze what kind of response he will give.
