As of: February 6, 2024, 12:46 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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The Netherlands will deliver more F-16 fighter jets to the Ukrainian armed forces than initially announced.
Kiev is already working on its use against the Russian invading army.
Kiev - At the beginning of 2024, the European Union (EU) will increase its arms support in the Ukraine war without the USA.
While Germany plans to provide the Ukrainian army with dozens of tanks for (at least) one brigade, the Netherlands announced on Monday (February 5) that it would deliver additional F-16 fighter jets to Kiev.
Weapons for Ukraine: Netherlands supplies Kiev with more F-16 fighter jets
The NATO member will now deliver 24 combat aircraft instead of 18 as previously planned, Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren announced on the short message service X (formerly Twitter).
“Ukraine’s air sovereignty is crucial to deterring Russian aggression,” Ollongren wrote in her post.
“In further packages of military assistance, Ukraine expects F-16 aircraft and missiles with a range of 300-500 kilometers, which will allow the Defense Forces of Ukraine to achieve even greater successes on the battlefield and liberate our territory from the enemy” , Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, a commander of the joint Ukrainian armed forces, was quoted by the American news magazine
Newsweek
.
A Polish Air Force F-16 fighter jet.
(Symbolic photo) © IMAGO / Björn Trotsky
In Crimea: Ukrainian air forces are putting pressure on Russia's army
His statements read quite offensively.
Because the Ukrainian air force has long had different plans for the F-16 fighter jets than initially communicated by NATO and Kiev?
Because: Originally, the American fighter jets were intended to help protect large cities in particular against insidious Russian air attacks.
But while devastating reports about the situation of the Ukrainian army on the ground front are increasing, the air forces of the battered country over the Black Sea and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in violation of international law, have obviously gone on the offensive - at least through individual actions.
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The most recent example: On Thursday (February 1st), media from Kiev, Ukrainian military bloggers and Interior Ministry advisor Anton Gerashchenko reported a heavy air strike against the Russian aviation squadron at the Belbek military airfield.
Three Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-24M fighter bombers fired at least six British Storm Shadows or French Scalp cruise missiles (technically identical) at the air base on the peninsula on Wednesday (January 31), the Ukrainian side said.
The armed forces-affiliated
Kyiv Post
reported “perhaps the most ambitious and complex Ukrainian airstrike of the war so far.”
Because: Belbek is the most developed and supposedly best defended Russian air base in the Black Sea region, the online newspaper wrote.
Ukraine's air sovereignty is crucial to deterring Russian aggression.
Kajsa Ollongren, Defense Minister of the Netherlands
Annexed Crimean peninsula: Ukrainians attack from the air
Recently, there have been increasing signs that Ukraine wants to attack Crimea, which was part of its territory from 1991 until it was occupied by the Russians in 2014.
The losses of Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin's Russian Black Sea Fleet are now said to be enormous, making it more difficult for Moscow to hold onto the symbolic peninsula.
Newsweek
points out that the ATACMS surface-to-surface missile used by Ukraine for this purpose has a limited range of 190 miles (approx. 306 kilometers).
With the powerful short-range missiles - probably fired from Himars multiple rocket launchers - the Ukrainian armed forces also inflicted significant losses on the Russians in Crimea.
The problem: The Himars artillery systems have to be brought very close to the front in order to be able to hit targets in Crimea.
Killed defending Ukraine: fighter pilot “Blue Helmet”, alias Vladyslav Zalistovskyi.
© Screenshot Instagram/olezhkovna_22
Despite the successes in Crimea: Ukrainian air forces are severely decimated
This is where the F-16s come into play, on which an unknown number of Ukrainian pilots have been training in the Netherlands and Denmark since August 2023.
Copenhagen announced the delivery of 19 fighter jets last summer.
Makes a total of 33 F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine.
Despite the military successes in Crimea, their air forces are struggling hard.
Most recently it was announced that the young and popular fighter pilot Vladyslav Zalistovskyi, nicknamed “Blue Helmet”, was killed in his MiG-29 while defending his homeland.
According to the much-quoted
Global Firepower Index (GFP),
the plagued country only had 40 operational combat aircraft as of February 6th.
(pm)