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10:36 04.08.2024 •
Bloomberg reported citing sources that the first batch of NATO-supplied F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine. According to the agency, "the number of jets is small." The sources added that it was not clear whether Ukrainian pilots, who have trained in the West in the past months, will "immediately use the warplanes or the process will take longer."
The Telegraph newspaper reported that the F-16s supplied to Ukraine had made their first flights in an "air defense" capacity, Sputnik Globe informs.
Former Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in the last days of the previous cabinet that the country's authorities had issued permission to export 24 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the first batch of which would be delivered soon.
Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands Vladimir Tarabrin told Sputnik that Moscow views this decision as a deliberate move by The Hague to escalate the conflict and destabilize the situation.
Russian Defense Ministry earlier said that Russian army will start hunting down F-16s as soon as they begin arriving and that Russian defense systems will get rid of the first batch of these jets in several weeks.
Vladimir Putin had a conversation with Russian military pilots in March and stressed that F-16 would not change the game for Kiev. “If they supply F-16s... I think, and you understand this better than anyone else,.. this will not change the situation on the battlefield,” Putin said.
While F-16 jets are indeed designed to counter relatively slow-moving airborne targets like cruise missiles, the effectiveness of these planes against Russian air raids is questionable, says Russian military analyst Dmitry Drozdenko.
He further notes that any Russian group airstrike would involve up to twenty cruise missiles and the F-16 jets donated to Ukraine are unlikely to be able to shoot all these missiles down.
“I think they will try to engage in air combat and attempt to attack our Su-34 [jets] that currently inflict serious damage upon Ukrainian fortifications thanks to glide bombs with the universal gliding and correction module,” Drozdenko says when asked how else Kiev may try to use these F-16s.
“As for our response, we have Su-30s and Su-35s, aircraft that are more advanced that these F-16s. And I know that our pilots are preparing to meet the enemy in our skies,” he notes.
According to Drozdenko, the range of Russian warplanes’ radar systems and the range of their air-to-air missiles exceed those of the radar and missiles used by F-16 so Russian have all the means to deal with the new threat.
“The only answer to this situation is to destroy this hardware, just like those Leopard and Abrams tanks,” he says.
Image of destroyed “Ukrainian” F-16 aircraft near Odesa emerges as Belgian incident.
Photo: Defense Express
No equipment supplied to Ukraine from the collective West will be able to turn the tide on the front in Kiev's favor and prevent Russia from achieving the goals of the special military operation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the Rossiya-1 TV channel, answering a question about deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, TASS quotes.
"No Western equipment that gets to Ukraine and is serviced either by local or [foreign] instructors brought there from the countries from where this equipment comes, will make it possible to prevent our success in terms of achieving the goals of the special operation. No equipment whatsoever," the diplomat stressed. "They have no means that could change the situation in their favor."
Ryabkov added that the "wreckage and burned fuselages" of F-16 jets will eventually be displayed at the NATO trophy equipment exhibition on Poklonnaya Hill.
Kiev may opt to station F-16s in Poland or in Romania to keep them safe from Russian airstrikes. An F-16 would then fly to an airstrip to quickly rearm and refuel, fly a sortie from that Ukrainian airfield and then quickly flee back to an airbase in one of the two aforementioned NATO countries.
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