Zelensky visits troops on Day of the Air Force, 4 August 2024. Photo: PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE
The first batch of US-made F-16 fighter jets has arrived in Ukraine, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, confirmed in a speech at an unnamed air base on Sunday.
Flanked by two of the long-awaited aircraft as two more flew overhead, Zelensky hailed a “new phase” for the country’s Air Force and said Ukraine had “made possible what was once our ambition” by securing the F-16s from its Western partners after “hundreds of meetings and negotiations”.
“Now it is actually a reality, a reality in our skies. F-16s are in Ukraine. We made it happen. I am proud of all our guys who are skillfully mastering these aircraft and have already started using them for our country”, Zelensky said, thanking Denmark, the Netherlands and the US for providing Kyiv with the jets.
While Zelensky did not specify the number of F-16s that Ukraine had received, The Economist reported that 10 of the 79 jets promised by Kyiv’s partners in the so-called “F-16 coalition” had arrived in the country on Wednesday, with 10 more expected to follow before the end of the year and the rest to come in batches during 2025.
Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials have been seeking to secure the aircraft since at least summer 2023, when the US gave the green light for its NATO partners to transfer them to Kyiv. Since then, multiple delays have led to repeated postponement of the aircraft’s arrival in Ukraine.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said that the arrival of the F-16s would mean “more downed missiles and planes that Russian criminals use to attack Ukrainian cities” and predicted that the aircraft would help “save the lives of Ukrainian servicemen”.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the F-16s would not be a “magic bullet” for Ukraine and that they would be “shot down and destroyed” by Russian forces.
