Ukraine’s Zelenskiy in Netherlands in push to spice up air defences

AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived within the Netherlands on Sunday in an ongoing push to spice up Ukraine’s air defences, days after the United States accredited the doable supply of F-16 fighter jets by the Netherlands and Denmark.

The Netherlands, along with Denmark, has in current months led worldwide efforts to coach Ukrainian pilots for F-16’s and to in the end ship the jets to assist counter the air superiority of Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“The main issue is F-16 for Ukraine to protect our people from Russian terror. We are getting stronger”, Zelenskiy mentioned in a submit on Telegram.

The agenda additionally contains the Global Peace Summit and bringing Russia to justice, Zelenskiy mentioned.

Zelenskiy will meet outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a army air base in Eindhoven, Rutte’s workplace mentioned with out offering additional particulars.

Rutte mentioned in May the Netherlands was significantly contemplating handing over F-16’s, but it surely’s not clear what number of they’d have obtainable and when.

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Saturday mentioned coaching had begun for Ukrainians to function F-16’s, however added it might take not less than six months and probably longer to additionally prepare engineers and mechanics.

Training will happen in Denmark and Romania, officers from a coalition of 11 nations have mentioned.

Ukraine, which expects a number of dozens of pilots to be skilled, mentioned final week it didn’t anticipate to have the ability to use F-16’s this autumn or winter.

The Netherlands may ship F-16’s as its armed forces are transitioning to newer F-35 fighters.

According to figures from the Dutch defence ministry, the Netherlands at the moment has 24 operational F-16s which will likely be phased out by mid-2024. Another 18 of the jets made by Lockheed Martin are at the moment obtainable on the market, of which 12 have been provisionally offered.

On Saturday Zelenskiy was in Sweden, the place he mentioned the opportunity of receiving Gripen jets.