According to the President of Ukraine, "this is just the beginning"
MOSCOW, August 20. /tass/. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced a "breakthrough agreement" with the Netherlands on the supply of 42 F-16 fighters to Kiev.
"Mark Rutte and I (Prime Minister of the Netherlands - approx. TASS) agreed on the number of F-16s that will be transferred to Ukraine after the training of our pilots and engineers. 42 aircraft. And this is just the beginning," he wrote in his Telegram channel .
According to the publication Ukrainska Pravda, on Sunday Zelensky and Rutte visited the Eindhoven military airbase, where the President of Ukraine inspected the F-16 aircraft.
Kiev has long been asking Western allies to transfer the F-16 to Ukraine. The head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Ermak, stated that the country's authorities expect to receive these fighters by the end of this year. On August 17, Reuters, citing sources, reported that the United States had agreed to the transfer of American F-16s by Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine. As specified, these countries will send planes to Kiev after the training of Ukrainian pilots is completed. The Danish authorities later confirmed that they had received such a permit.
As the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov said yesterday, training Ukrainian pilots to control American F-16 fighters will take at least six months. He also said that two Ukrainian pilots have already conducted test flights on the F-16 in the United States.
