Dozens of modern European planes can change the way Ukraine is fighting the Russian invasion in a few months. The Netherlands and Denmark have announced that they will deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as soon as the conditions are met. The commitment is the first closed promise to supply F-16s for the Ukrainian armed forces. It comes a few days after the United States approved the delivery of the fighter jets by the Netherlands and Denmark.
President Volodimir Zelensky said the Netherlands had agreed to supply 42 of the planes. Denmark also announced that it would donate 19 aircraft, confirmed today the ‘premier’ Mette Frederiksen.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began more than a year ago, officials in Kiev have been calling on their Western allies to supply the country’s air force with advanced fighter jets such as the F-16. But the United States, which makes the fighter jet, has long been reluctant to provide it or allow other countries that have F-16s to re-export them to Ukraine. They were concerned that the planes could be used to strike targets inside Russia and cause an escalation. That same fear has been raised when providing other types of weapons, but in the end none of the military supplies had this feared effect.
Finally, President Joe Biden gave the green light and this weekend kyiv announced that Ukrainian pilots have already begun their six-month training in US-made F-16 fighter jets. Doubts remained about Ukraine’s readiness, such as whether its infrastructure, including runways, is already capable of supporting F-16 operations.
Ukraine needs planes. “We have four to five times fewer planes than the Russians, and the range of the planes is four to five times less,” Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the force, said in an interview with The New York Times in May. The newest Ukrainian device is from 1991 and many have already been destroyed. Western military analysts estimate that Ukraine’s combined fleet, which comprises air and ground forces, has been reduced by more than a third since the Russian invasion began last year. Those who are ‘healthy’ can stop flying any day: obtaining spare parts is becoming a problem, as Russia is the sole producer of many of those parts and has already shut down supplies after the first attack in 2014.
The Netherlands has 42 F-16s available in total, but it won’t be donating all of them at once. Calling the compromise an “innovative agreement”, Zelensky admitted that the exact number of planes will be discussed “a bit later”.
The F-16 could stop many air attacks that the civilian population suffers on a daily basis. In addition to its obvious deterrent and defensive role, the aircraft can be used to recapture territories: the F-16 has radar that can locate targets on the ground hundreds of miles away, allowing it to fire from Ukrainian-controlled territory into occupied areas. by the Russians.
“Air superiority is required as a precondition for any successful offensive operation according to US and NATO military doctrine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimytro Kuleba recalled in an article in ‘Foreing Policy’ this year. Without that superiority, Ukraine has already liberated about half of the newly occupied territories.
Seeking to convince its allies to hand over planes, kyiv has insisted that modern jets would help ensure the safety of the Black Sea grain corridor. Without them everything depends on the goodwill of Russia. Kuleba even mentioned the possibility of sharing his experience regarding the use of F-16s against Russia, “which will significantly improve the US Air Force without endangering any American lives.”
Vladimir Putin invaded the Ukraine believing that the war would have little direct effect on the Russians. But sporadic attacks on Russian soil are becoming the norm. Russia confirmed on Sunday that Ukrainian drones had attacked four different regions. There was a drone attack on the Kursk railway station. Five people suffered minor injuries from glass fragments. Russia said it had intercepted a Ukrainian drone in the Moscow region, forcing it to crash in an unpopulated area. Once again flights had to be suspended at the capital’s airports, this time at Vnukovo and Domodedovo.
The Rostov governor confirmed another attack but said there were no injuries or damage. Later on Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had prevented two drone strikes in the Belgorod region, the border province most frequently targeted by Ukraine.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) says there are increasing reports of SA-5 Gammon missiles targeting Russia. Normally it is the drones that regularly attack Moscow.
The SA-5 Gammon is a 7.5-tonne, 11-meter-long, Soviet-era missile that was decommissioned in the air defense arena, although it was listed in Ukraine’s inventory. They were originally designed to destroy American spy planes. It is now being used as a ground-attack ballistic missile.
According to Russian media, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have attacked several places, including the Kerch bridge, with S-200, SA-5 Gammon missiles according to NATO classification. Missiles have to be modified for ground-to-ground use.
In June one of these missiles fell and exploded in Taganrog, almost 50 kilometers from the Russian border with Ukraine. Air defense systems also intercepted a second missile in the Azov region. Earlier Ukraine launched such a missile in Bryansk, Russia, about 110 miles from the Ukrainian border, hitting an industrial enclave in the area last year.